Destiny: The Undertale
by Frostyfury
Summary: A crossover between Bungie&Activision's MMOFPS and Toby Fox's Undertale, spoiler warning on Undertale. Occurs after Taken King's April update.(OC guardian anomally/player(s) controlling the child) An exploration of those who are really from a place where it's really kill or be killed trying to make things better. Using lifts and references to fill in holes instead of one-shots.
1. The Ultimate Victory

**The Ultimate Victory**

The Lighthouse. A pinnacle of combat in the crucible all Guardians aspire too… some appreciate and are wary of Osiris machinating in the shadows behind this tournament… but all want what he rewards those who make it here with. It's Noble B 312's first time here… and he stared in amazement at the sun… reflexively shielding his eyes from the bright blazing light… he wasn't one of those Exos who could filter what they wanted to see with special optics… but then… He hadn't met one who was a Guardian yet either.

He turned around and his team mate trans-mated in next to him… the other, a warlock was missing… B 312 removed his Pandion helmet…

B 312: Harley, where'd he go?

The Hunter pulled off her Mask of the Third Man, revealing red hair tied up in twintails on the sides of her head… her eyes were painted around with smokey blue war paint or makeup… in the intense yellow light of the sun, her pale white complexion making it impossible to tell if she was human or awoken.

Harley: Eh, he said he collected it before we met him for that final game… was being pragmatic… you only had 6 Passage Coins on you after all, he bought the free win, we're lucky he didn't say toodles before we finished that round.

B 312: Thanonauts…

Harley: Oh relax Robo puddin' it's just your first time seeing this, of course you're antsy…. If you don't make it, just try again… until you do… anyway you're one sweet suppressor… *MUACK!*

Harley stepped back a little, rubbing her lips…

Harley: Your hot!

B 312: Huh?

Harley: Your metal face… is really really hot… I burned my lips giving you that… ow…

The Exo couldn't quite express apology given the limitations of his face, but he had enough eyelid and mouth dynamic movement to try.

B 312: I'm sorry. But I'm still on operational temperature… Mercury… the sun… being… well, a robot…

Harley: Don't worry about it! I just won't ultimate victory kiss you on Mercury next time! Let's go see what they got for us!

Harley sprinted with quite a skip in every step… she had been here before… B 312 took his time to take in the awe of the sights… the ship…. The vex architecture… the kiln with a ball of energy floating above it… he soon caught back up to Harley… who was cart-wheeling around the candles near the large treasure chest… and… leapt off the side of the ledge.

Her ghost brought her back behind him shortly after… she slided into him… sparks trailing due to the increased sprint speed and slide distance… He jumped to the side… as she broke into a dance…

B 312: I swear Eververse could be put out of business by you…

Harley: Eh, that's just for Kinderguardians who just woke up… and you graduate from being one in many ways… in your case, making it here… ready?

B 312: Yeah… lets… lets do this!

He could barely contain his excitement, no matter the prize… this was one he earned after outthinking and outfighting so many opponents in escalating skill, ability and equipment quality.

Harley: 3… 2… 1…!

There was a clicking whirl as the idol on top rotated and turned around… the lid was then pushed off… as they got what was addressed to them…

B 312: Oh wow… Doctrine of Passing! And… it's got counterbalance! It's black too! What did you get…

Harley: Eh… another Water Star… I like Eyasluna better… I'm gonna put it into this thing I've been holding onto…

B 312: Whoa… whats that gun? Looks… exotic…

Harley: Because it is, robo puddin'… I have no time to explain why I have No Time To Explain… see what I did there?

B 312: Please don't tell me that's actually the gun's name…

Harley: It is… got a long story behind it too… but I'm gonna infuse this first…

B 312: Tell me about it…

B 312's ghost materialized to speak… Harley sighed as her's did so as well…

Ghost: Urgent message from Zavala… playing…

Zavala: Guardians, a large fallen raid is attacking a residential district, respond immediately…

B 312: We should…

Harley: Yeah yeah, we're going… I wanted to have a good time to celebrate your making it here, but I suppose an alien shooting party will have to do, Ghostie! Tell Zavala we're Fireteam Pierrot, and we're heading over now.

Ghosts, having an eye and a shell, didn't seem like much for expressing emotion… but Harley's clearly rolled its eyes and jerked in the air… in imitation of a somebody giving a sarcastic snarky cough… albeit silently.

B 312: Pierrot?

Ghost: I'll show you the reference some other day, calling our ship in…

As Harley boarded her Glass Minuet, he also transmated into his Phaeton V3 and took the controls…

Ghost: Fire team Sad clown, to the rescue… yay.

The ghost hardly sounded enthusiastic at all.

B 312: Wow… really?

H Ghost: You should have heard Cayde and Zavala when she designated Fireteam The Bad Guys Don't Really Care What We Call Ourselves Do They?

B 312: *Sigh*… too bad, she's the more experienced one here, though I suspect she's mainly helping me because she wants that Infinite edge… a lot…

H Ghost: Well thanks for putting up with her then.


	2. Starving Scavengers

**Starving Scavengers**

Exiting warp… they weren't the only ship pulling out… Guardians were rallying to the site in large numbers… he dove into the airspace… some guardians were on the ground fighting alongside the city's security troops and army… B312 elected to strafe a Skiff with the laser weapons on the Phaeton and wishing he drove something more heavily armed… An iron Banner or Crucible ship came to mind… he'd love to have some missiles now… the Skiff apparently had finished dropping it's load of troops, because now it was coming after him… he reckoned he should have done his dive from the opposite direction now… The skiff was retaliating with Arc projectiles… then he realized… they weren't going to hit his ship… those guns were fitted for anti-surface bombardment. The Skiff began to chase him… but a series of explosions followed by white sparks sent it tumbling down at the city outskirts the wreckage rolling along and exploding…

He spotted 2 more Skiffs, both carrying spider tanks… and pushed the throttle, going after the one nearest to him on the left… he blew up it's guns… The Fallen Pilot dropped the walker immediately as a response to his attack before tearing off into the sky…

Ghost: We're being locked onto by…

He punched the throttle again… starting a Transmat eject as well… the ship was obliterated by the Spider tank cannon and arc missiles… skidding along the roof top of a building, he pulled out his copy of Dreadfang and stabbed it into the roof to break his momentum… craving a long gash into the cement… the combat frame and a generic soldier present gingerly stopped firing over the edge and pulled him into cover with them. The soldier handed him his sniper rifle… the firing stand had been broken off.

Soldier: I can't make the shots without the stand on those vandals pinning us opposite… you can.

B 312 took the rifle and popped out aiming down the scope… 2 wire rifles fired in response… one of the Vandals were stealthed… and he didn't get it right away, the other had it's blast thrown in the air courtesy of a shot to the head… the other narrowly missed him, the blast impacting B312's shoulder…

Pain had a different message to a Guardian though… it meant take some cover while the light within you fixes it quite rapidly… he ducked back down as his exposed Exo body underneath shimmered with some Arc energy residue and then the damage to his metal bits started to fix itself as well as the armor he wore… the soldier had seen this before, but it was sometimes an unnerving sight although they were on the same side… B312 was an Exo though, so there was circuitry, wires and servos… the sight of Awoken or Human bones, muscle and skin knitting like that however…

The Vandal died the moment B312 rose back out of cover... and he heard the sound of a Fallen stealth system failing… though the Frame that was with them had been bisected very clean… Trisected… the Stealth captain had been hit with a shotgun blast in the Frame's last act of robotic valor… must have been Arc charged shells… the Captain's shield systems were fizzling little sparks out… B312 chucked one suppressor grenade… the Captain teleported in evasive response… right into where another suppressor was waiting. B312 gave a robotic smirk under the helmet he acquired from the vangaurd… he loved the Armamentarium ever since he obtained it and couldn't recall when he had gone into any battle without it for a very long time. He looked over the ledge… the spider tank that dropped into the city trundled into plain view, cornering 2 frames, 3 soldiers… and more civilians than he had time to count… the machine started to orient itself to bring all weapons to bear on the crowd…

B312 sprinted and leapt over the edge of the roof, he gave a small burst of lift to his jump… scoped in on one of the Spider tank's front legs and sniped, hoping the machine would respond… it worked well enough, the thing looked at him… his HUD pinged that he had enough built up energy for a Super… and he triggered it, landing with his arms spread out in a purple translucent sphere… the machine defiantly unleashed it's ordinance on the Ward of Dawn… but that's what he wanted. Better all that fire power on him than the denizens of the city… he swapped out the Choleric Dragon for a copy of the Sleeper Simulant he had 3d printed from the Vanguard hall… it wasn't the original, and he had been itching for a time and chance to use it… He jumped and lifted himself out from the top of the Ward of Dawn… the machine sprayed an Arc minigun of sorts at him… he was taking some hits but refused to let his aim with the Rasputinian weapon falter… and blast the exact spot he previously sniped at with the Laser cannon.

The armor blew off the leg and the walker collapsed… he winced from his injuries inside the Ward of Dawn and hoped no stealth tech fallen was sneaking up on him… he was amplifying weapon power through Weapons of Light… there was no defense here besides the Ward of Dawn's surface… what would his next option be…

He heard the trademark electric rushing buzz that marked a fellow Titan activating their Fist of Havoc while in Striker stance… and the largest Titan he had ever seen dive punched the Spider Tank's exposed engine… typically the Spider Tank had a "death throes" before exploding when it had been pummeled enough with ballistics… this time the explosion just happened… and the Titan who was even bigger than Shaxx, Zavala or Saladin had gone…

The soldiers and frames behind him began to usher the citizens away as his ghost manifested in front of him.

Ghost: Harley's looking for you.

B 312: What you need clown princess?

Harley: These attacks are layers on layers of diversions… the tanks were the most obvious… followed by the abducted citizens I'm asking you to go after with me… and… I guess we'll have to let them keep some of the stuff they were desperately stealing and hope we don't regret the choice, sparrow up!

Indeed, the House of Devils seemed to be withdrawing… he dropped the sniper rifle he had borrowed and pulled out his own 1000 Yard Stare… a Pike Dreg dropped and he commandeered the undamaged vehicle left behind… this would fulfill the spirit of the "sparrow up" command and give him onboard weapons anyway. Homing in on a marker on his HUD denoting Harley… when he reached her, he was just in time to watch her leap off her sparrow… blink atop another Pike Dreg… do a blink strike and shove the corpse off while taking the vehicle… 3 Skiffs were splitting up in the distance…

Harley: We're on the same page eh B man?

B312: Which Skiff's got the people?

Harley: The one flying the slowest… it's always like this to make sure they get the stuff they want, they make it easy for us to get back what we want…

B312: The city's people…

Harley: The guns have been blown off this one, so we just need to not lose sight.

They both throttled their pikes after the crippled Fallen Skiff.

B312: If only we could blast it now… but there's people on that thing.

Harley: I used to think and sound like that… but… eh, story for another time.

B312: Yes… normal people don't have ghosts to fix everything that harms them…

The wall… the Skiff settled into what looked like a pseudo fortress being built around it… House Devils banners flew in very obvious and blatant spots… it was meant to be noticed… they pulled into an entrance to the wall. The sun began to set, tinting everything in orange.

Harley: We're so being sent back here on a strike…

B312: We can't risk the citizens…

Harley: I know, we're getting the babies out first…

Harley's Crimson shelled ghost popped out… B312 noticed how it still had an annoyed expression despite only having 1 eye and shell casings to emote with… perhaps it had some reserved sentiments about the Guardian it was now paired with.

H Ghost: Comms jammed… we're on our own…

Harley: The Fallen took these people because they knew we'd come after them and they'd hope they'll get away with the stuff they stole which we won't value as much… they must be desperate… ha ha…

B312: Far as I know… they probably are… spending lives to trade for supplies…

There was a sharpened metal rod staked into the ground with a slightly decayed human head on it…

B312: Nice to see some things never change.

Harley: I'm going blade dancer and all quiet like… follow as best you can, we don't want them raising the alarm, though I'd bet they know they were followed.

B312 watched as Harley knelt… and with a electric wispy noise… she was gone save for a pale distortion… she sprinted forwards, the sound one would expect from rapid footfalls on a metal grille rendered nonexistent.

Harley's trail was easy to follow… decapitated fallen corpses or neck snapped ones… maybe a stab wound in their back… they were making their way upwards to where the skiff had landed… he found a human woman hiding behind an old fire hose box… she took a swing at him with a length of rusting steel pipe screaming in fury… which he promptly caught…

Woman: Ohmygod, it's you… the other one she… I'm sorry… so sorry…

B312: Don't worry about it… is she in this room?

Woman: Yeah… she insisted you show her that you have er… "Patience and Time"… and I should stay close to you…

B312: Alright… can you use a gun?

He offered her a Havoc Pigeon he got from an engram… the Woman nodded and hesitantly took it, she seemed a bit fearful… B312 shrugged it off as nerves from the situation. He noted the bruise on her forehead as well as a lot of small cuts from rough handling and being brusquely dragged around.

B312: Who else was with you?

Woman: There were three others, me and a kid are all that's left…

B312: They took you to cover the escape of their supplies and now your usefulness to them has ended… don't worry, we'll get you and the kid home safe… I promise.

B312 pulled his ghost out…

B312: Lock this door once me and the civilian are through.

Ether had a very strong smell… industrial clutter, bleach and Ozone… those were things one would think of… Ghost started tinkering with the lock as the woman and B312 crouched behind cover…

B312: Stay hidden here, don't shoot anything unless they find you.

B312 stowed his sleeper simulant and pulled out Patience and Time… the woman was out of immediate view behind him… being a Titan however, this was one of his only means of active camouflage… he spotted Harley on a factory spotlight up above… there was a gutted fallen corpse underneath shoved into an air vent… the electric buzzing hum of Arc blade filled the air as the fallen in the room were nervously panicking…

There were no wire rifle vandals… of course not… Harley would have shredded them first, any practical guardian would… she was gone in that moment he looked around for one… there was a Vandal hung of by its legs and arms via industrial grade chain… the hook was stabbed into its neck which bled a small wispy stream of ether… it dangled from Harley's chain like some perverse piñata… and the dregs and vandals attracted by it came, they would have seen it as well… he thought he saw a transparent flicker edge its way into middle of that crowd of 4 hostiles…

Harley pulled off a showstopper… the four Fallen were sent flying while dissipating from the Arc energy in midair… the PA blared to life… Angry Fallen yelling blared over the system… as the control room began to open. Ghost spoke to B312 without forming…

Ghost: Seeing as our course of action is now an insurance policy, how about a translation… Traveler Thief, Ghoul… and wishes of starvation and desperation to sweep the city…

B312: I seriously hope the lady behind didn't hear that…

Ghost: Oops…

B312 looked at where Harley was, the shutter was open but she was now out of sight… he began to move to reposition himself, trying not to make noise and slowing down since he didn't know if stealth was still in merit or no longer.

Harley turned spotted the child… but she hesitated… she had nearly done something unforgivably horrible when she was last with a kid like this… but… when or where was that… it had been so long ago… the messy hair, the striped shirt… what was the face like…

The chattering metallic pops of a shrapnel launcher sounded… Harley broke out of being lost in thought she recognized the slow orange shots… and prepared to blink away… but to her horror… her motion tracker showed one friendly behind her… it was the messy haired kid in the striped shirt… whose face was still tear stained… she'd have to take the shrapnel burst… it tore into her flesh and cauterized… but she didn't care… she was serene… at peace with this choice… it was too little penance… her body failed and the ghost shell was left hovering there… as she slumped to her knees… arms still spread out… falling as if she had been crucified and toppled forwards…

The Reaver Captain roared and trudged forwards, electing to pull out shock blades… contemplating it's options with Harley's ghost… of course, this was tactically the same mistake Harley made… so it got domed and staggered dizzy from a sniper rifle shot… the shields sparing the worst of the damage… but it wouldn't get to recover or try to teleport… B312 hurled a suppressor a fair distance away… the kid would be unharmed… the Captain wouldn't take a lot of damage… but what he wanted was to deny teleporting… that having worked… B312 aimed his scope at the captain's head… the silhouette of a Titan aiming down a red glinting sniper scope in full Osiris Golden Bull Gear sans Armamentarium would be the last thing this enemy of humanity would see.

B312 flickered back into the opaque as he contemplated what had just transpired…

Ghost: You might want to revive Harley seeing as the Darkness is a little strong here… before angrier Fallen come in after us.

B312… Right…

Harley got back on her feet, B312 noted she didn't say anything but made to untie the child… her gait seemed unusual and oddly resembled shambling…

H ghost: She's fine, thanks…

Ghost: *whisper to B312* wow, I can't even see her face and I can tell she's not taking this well.

H Ghost: Priority now is getting the kid back safely…

B312: And the woman.

H Ghost: Give us a 30 second head start… you watch the civilians.

Harley left the room while B312 carried the child on his back to the woman…

Woman: Was that another guardian? She seemed…

The sentence was interrupted by the sound of metal being torn through, sparks and a fallen servitor blowing up…

B312: Don't worry, she's still on our side, just clearing a path…

The 30 second head start ended on the sound of an ether storage tank being torn open and ruptured, it's contents flowing and spilling out… and the electric sharp buzz of a bladedancer powering up… B312 switched to a hand cannon so he could cradle the child clad in a green and yellow striped shirt… Fallen screaming and the sound of electric slashes came from the stairwell leading up…

Ghost: Ether has always been synthetic light… looks like she bathed in it and got… serious.

B312 Made his way up the stairwell and noted the rather gory slashed corpses which didn't puff away into their particles by the arc assault…

B312: oh dear…

He shielded the pale yellow face of the child after holstering his Eyasluna… this was not something you let kids see… Indeed, part way up, he spotted an Archon seemingly begging Harley for mercy… all it's limbs had been severed… they made it up to the roof as one more Arc blade slash sounded behind them leaving a haunting echo mixed with a Fallen shriek…

Ghost: I've called for our ship…

The red imitation of New Monarchy's finest halted just enough to transmat him,the child and the woman on board… the ship then blasted off for the city… B312 oddly reminisced the time he blew across the sky in a failing Arcadia Class jump ship… shortly followed by Harley's ship.

Zavala: Fireteam… Pierott… check in.

B312: Loud and clear sir, returning to… the city with 2 of the 5 civilians… the rest didn't make it.

Zavala:… That is regrettable… but nonetheless you have prevented a more tragic outcome, the city's authorities are currently beleaguered with the aftermath, so I'm granting your ghosts one-time access to the civilian database. Find out where to drop them off… and remember… these are the ones who call you guardian.

Harley still hadn't said a word as her ship bolted to the tower while he followed the coordinates from Ghost's data sifting to a landing pad near the site of the attack… order was largely restored now, though soldiers, frames and civil response staff were present… along with the large titan, who seemed to be the only guardian around now.

Woman: Thank you, I'll be able to find my way home myself…

She returned the Havoc Pigeon to him before leaving… with a single glance back at him… B312 was thus left along with the child on his arm and shoulder… he realized he had never actually stood in the city before… He always had been at the tower. The crowd around him whispered as they saw him…

Ghost: Fear… of things they don't understand…

B312: Me?

Ghost: Not mainly you… some buy the pitch that guardians are to be treated like superheroes… others follow the Fallen's space zombie theory… though I don't know how that got into the city…

B312: There's a bit of truth to both if I think about it hard enough…

Ghost: …Are you secretly a Warlock?

The child's house didn't stand out, B312 gave the doorbell a press… as the child fidgeted from familiarity he set the kid on the ground… and a woman opened the door… she ran and embraced her child…

Mother: My baby!

Child: Mommy!

Mother: How can I ever repay… oh…

Ghost and B312 knew instantly that gratitude was being replaced with the misunderstanding they discussed earlier… but they regarded Harley's welfare as a higher priority and turned around to leave…

Mother: Wait! I'm sorry… Thanks!

B312: You're welcome madam…

Their ship rose to the tower in a slow VTOL hover… B312 felt some relief from the mix of reactions below… some cheering and enthusiastic, others fearful… why? He was a defender through and through… of humanity… Harley's ghost contacted them and interrupted his train of thought.

H Ghost: Please join us at the FWC office…

Future War Cult… where ships docked and near the Dead Orbit area as well as the Vanguard gun distribution center… that section of the tower… B312 strolled to the right. As an irate Hunter threw a tantrum and started yelling at Master Rahool… not a new sight, seeing guardians get peeved at him…

He could hear Lakshimi 2 guffawing as he climbed the stairs up to their office…

Lakshimi 2: What do I think of the New Monarchy? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… I don't. Really.

As he made his way in, several more laughs were heard… he recognized Harley on one of the sofas in the area and joined her…

Lakshimi 2: I do not mind you bringing unaffiliated guardians with you, but you should at least show your faction badge…

Harley: Eh… I lost it again, bummer right?

Lakshimi 2: 2500 glimmer please… from you or your friend.

B312: That's a bit harsh…

Lakshimi 2: So is existing, Titan…

Harley: Yeah yeah, heres some of my Osiris fight money… now let me just get to my cult locker…

Lakshimi 2: That will come in handy…

Lakshimi was left with B312 for a moment…

Lakshimi 2: Titan, would you consider joining us? You are clearly of far sounder mind than your friend…

B312: I don't know, you guys sound like you're on the logical conclusion of an existential depression…

Lakshimi 2: She's an unusual case in being a Guardian who knows her past life, her ghost stowed away with some of our Guardians to Venus… in the Ishtar academy, she was part of the teams probing the Vex research systems… when they revived her, the data was also pulled from the simulations being run around her… there was enough to put together what seems to be a perfectly accurate simulation of her past life… she agreed to have it implanted to her brain…

B312: And it changed her for sure…

Lakshimi 2: A bit of cognitive dissonance or multiple personality disorder resulted… but she remains a valuable member of the FWC, whether she flaunts her façade persona or is… just looking for things to strike down.

Harley came back at this moment…

Harley: Let's go have a drink below robo-puddin…

As they left… Lakshimi 2 called out one more time.

Lakshimi 2: Don't lose the badge again…

The area below the FWC office was somewhat between a lounge and a bar… and was quite cozy… except for the moments when Xur arrived and set himself up there instead, then it was crowded as hell by default…

Harley: Sorry I flipped out on you earlier… I kinda lost it when I saw… that… kid.

B312: Yeah what was that about?

Harley: You got time to hear me explain why I have no time to explain?

B312 Paused a moment to process when she just said and cringed a little.

B312: Yes.

Harley: Ok… it all started when we went to investigate a signal from the vault of glass… supposedly came from this old guardian called Praedyth… we found 3 ghosts… and… well, we did find his skeleton, but we went on and he just kept talking… after clearing the vault of taken… we got a ghost… with FWC colors… supposedly his.

B312: Wow… then?

Harley: Then we went after a strong Taken Minotaur… and found ourselves instructed to attack Atheon again…

B312: Whoa what? Record says that thing is dead!

Harley: Well, out here he is… but in there… he hasn't died… has died… and will die again… that's what my Warlock pal used to say… basically you could storm the place for kicks if you want and kill him again is what I know…


	3. That which does not believe in time

**That which does not believe in time**

Atheon struggled, forcing another teleport on 3 of its opposing intruders… calculating something massive and incomprehensible to humans as it was now being thrown with one thing it had never contemplated… defeat and destruction of itself… yet reports from the extra-vault Vex claimed it had been defeated before already… contradiction in information sources meant to be flawless… only one under such variables had ever been confronted…

Atheon raised it's hand as the supplicants fanned out to search for those that would oppose the pattern… impediments to a universe of Vex supremacy… it crunched away numbers and methods in information it had been burdened with… it's seemingly repeated defeats in the vault… Oryx… data on Aurash from Quaria Blade transform… The doom of all Vex to be Taken, which the Minds had used the Guardian's ability to deny Vex supremacy to defer…

Atheon understood something… it was one of three parties in a war for supremacy here, and the only one with control over space and time… yet everything that defied the pattern and refused to be cut away was able to have its effect in the present as it was… illogical… defying reason… But if this battle it had was to recur, and it would lose repeatedly… perhaps it could commence something else, since before it was just an invasion by the guardians… whereas now… Oryx was another factor…

Outside, waiting for their allies, three guardians fought away supplicants as best they could while holding the door to the future open on the right… green skinned awoken Kerrigan fired away with her auto rifle… Artanis 3 used his Bolt caster to zone supplicants as Raynor prepared to pour his light into a golden gun altered by the celestial nighthawk he wore over his bearded face.

Artanis 3: Hold fast my brethren… soon our allies will emerge and victory will be ours!

Raynor: He can't hold out much longer… it's listing and leaking that white bacteria fluid…

Kerrigan: This pitiful weakling can't possibly think they have a hope of winning…

The purple clad warlock leapt up and hurled a shatter Nova bomb, blowing up several supplicants clustering on the gateway to the past instead… Raynor grabbed the orbs as he felt the familiar surge of power from Time's Vengeance…

Raynor: Right between the eyes…

Atheon finished calculating and planning… the Vex's true history could not be chronicled in a linear timeline but rather how across a timeline constantly altered by them how widespread they were… it altered the gate where it had exiled 3 guardians… also a combination of warlock, titan and hunter… like the trio outside…

Karina: Last cleanse, go go go!

The Warlock and Hunter filtered through to gate ahead of their large, heavily armored friend… only to wind up in the same variant of the room again… somehow… the titan came along shortly after, also similarly confused… The warlock was wearing the Theosyian Vibrasse gloves… which seemed to prickle in sync with his irritation at the situation…

Jing: Dirty vex trick, go through again!

Atheon sensed the three guardians emerging back into the present and the fight against it with the cursed relic… the anomaly that punctured the perfection of Vex will in the vault… but they didn't need to jump onto the usual floating block to attack, Atheon predicted its systems were doomed to fail… and Raynor glowed bright with solar fire… with deadeye and over the horizon as well as celestial nighthawk… one bullet of starcrafted fire ended that which does not believe in time…

Harley: Aw cowboy puddin'… you should have let us have some fun…

Raynor: Just put the poor critter out of its misery… you can come back here and have your fun again anytime.

Artanis 3: Well done warriors! I am departing in the wake of this victory…

Kerrigan: I'm outta here… you coming cowboy?

Raynor: Hell, it's about time…

Jing: Alright, time to cut another Vex head… stupid queen's brother… anyway…

Harley: I wanna put a smile on its face.

Karina: Harley the eye is important to the three of us, you can play with what's left after we do what we need with it…

Jing sighed at his gloves as three members of the Raid departed… he loved putting the Restorative Mind down and even found it funny how those things seemed to whip and twitch in fear whenever he was combating Vex… after enough picking with Raze lighter he managed to free most of the head with the eye Lakshimi 2 requested intact… Harley stepped forward to the leftover Vex chassis.

Jing: Somethings unusual though… last time when he was the biggest shot he tumbled into ash… this time there's a…

Karina's very large form seemed to move impossibly fast as she instinctively threw up an Armor of Light type Ward of Dawn to protect her friends. Atheon's remains detonated in a bright flash with no visible warning or build up sound… Jing gasped in shock as the blast seemingly consumed Harley before it overtook them… He could still see Karina trying to reach out from the Purple bubble to grab Harley…

Jing and Karina: Harley!


	4. Fallen

**Fallen**

"Remember. Bullets are always the answer to any problem, always."-Cayde 6

Harley: … my head hurts… and my armor feels heavy… every part of me hurts…

H Ghost: Oh, now you know how I feel…

Harley: Where are we?

H Ghost: I can detect the remnants of Vex particles all over you… and that same energy frequency permeates this… place we're in…

Harley understood what her ghost was trying to say… in her current environment there seemed to be nothing yet she knew there was stuff around as if she could see it… definitely touch or feel it…

Harley: Am I injured?

H Ghost: You seem alright… unless you mean mentally, then you've always been fruity since we made that deal with Lakshimi 2.

Harley wanted to get up and swipe at her companion as the pain in her body began to dull… but she was still lying down face up so what happened was a crude dismissive swiping gesture in the ghost's direction…

Harley: Please tell me we're still in the vault… where's Mr. and Ms. K?

H Ghost: To the first… not sure, to the second… the better question is to ask when… then where are we, since Atheon plays time Ping Pong with us… could have been a spiteful present from his grave…

Harley: Eh, Vex can't feel… they're big bronze robots…

H Ghost: Actually Ikora Ray has found that…

Harley: Blah Blah Blah…

H Ghost: Hm…

Harley: What?!

H Ghost: I… am detecting some extra sensory input being fed to you from this environment… if you could try…

Harley: Hey wait, I shut my eyes and I do see something… yellow flowers… lots of them… think these were called Buttercups… hey where's my gun?

Harley opened her eyes and the weapon she became the bane of so many in the crucible with was still in her right hand… as always… a little dull green glow still exuding from it.

Harley: Ok… can you check what I just saw out? And keep looking, I'm gonna try to…

She closed her eyes, the hands in a blue shirt striped with 2 purple lines moved their stubby childlike fingers…

H Ghost: Looks like you're getting input from and sending some to… a really young kid's body…

Harley: Ok… time to see if…

Harley tried to perform a blink when her eyes closed…amazingly the child's body followed suit, but she was certainly not used to the limb proportions a child had… so she had a bad landing and ended up falling together with the kid's body… She felt some scrapes pain her…

H Ghost: Ouch, poor kid… though… the kid can actually use the light?

Harley: Eh, I'll have to get used to it… I think we need this kid to… ok, just check around the place and look for signs of what we need to do, see if there's a time gate the Vex hid around or something… and tell me if you see something that can shoot you… I'm gonna poke around as the kid. S

Her ghost kept quiet as it didn't see any better option while she followed the only path in the area available and entered a door… this area seemed like a kids drawing given life, there was a large buttercup there with a face… and it talked.

?: Howdy! I'm FLOWEY! FLOWEY the FLOWER!

[H Ghost]: This is surreal… like one of your dream sequences…

[Harley]: Shush, it might hear us! I think he only sees the kid…

[H Ghost]: Wow… you being tactical? Did the kid bump the head when you flubbed the blink earlier?

Flowey: You're new to the UNDERGROUND, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do. Ready? Here we go!

[H Ghost]: Well, maybe being in a kid's drawing isn't so bad…

[Harley]: Shush, you made me miss some of what it said!

Flowey: …Your soul starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV

Harley wanted to inquire what LV was… and this time the child spoke what she said in turn as well…

Harley: What's LV?

Flowey: What's LV stand for? Why, L.O.V.E., of course! You want some L.O.V.E., don't you?

Harley: Yeah!

Flowey: Don't worry, I'll share some with you!

The wink the flower gave her was somewhat adorable…

Flowey: Down here, L.O.V.E. is shared through little white…

[H Ghost]: I don't like that pause and eyebrow tilt…

Flowey:…"friendliness pellets" Are you Ready?

Through the child's eyes Harley looked at the stationary spinning white oblong shapes…

Flowey: Are you ready? Move around… get as many as you can…

The pellets were slow moving, somewhat like a the Fallen Shrapnel launcher weapon… the similarity triggered Harley's defensive instincts and she blinked away from their path instinctively, even preparing to draw her Hand Cannon on the flower… of course, she was in what seemed like some Vex manipulated dimension… so the kid ended up holding an imaginary gun that wasn't really there… she was relieved though… she had instinctively fired already… the trademark "Phunk" unique to her gun still echoed in area… Flowey looked a little irritated…

Flowey: Hey Buddy, you missed them. Lets try again, okay?

Harley nodded, this time forcing herself to stand still to the white oblongs… what she felt next was not too different from being hit by a shrapnel launcher, only accompanied with a self-scathing "I WAS DITZY ENOUGH TO BE TRICKED AND TAKE THIS?!" then she panicked… the kid must be dying after taking such a blow… if she was guiding the child she had failed… she had to get out of where she was and…

Flowey: You Idiot. In this world. It's kill or be killed. Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like this!?

She barely managed to get on her feet along with the kid… this was in defiance of the pain she shared with the child… they were surrounded by more pellets this time… no… she might as well call them bullets now…

Flowey: Die.

The flower laughed with a face she was preparing to blink at and stab with a Blink strike… it was what she was going to do… since the kid could blink using her light… but all the kid had on hand was a stick… however a flower wouldn't do too well even if it was sentient right? A full force blow from a kid couldn't be totally harmless to it… of course she, the kid and flower were all surprised when the bullets disappeared… and a fireball came in blowing the flower away. She suddenly realized the kid wasn't in anymore pain either.

?: What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor innocent youth…

[H Ghost]: Wow…this really looks like a kid's drawing land now… better get ready… she looks and sounds much tougher…

[Harley]: I don't know… she seems ok to me… almost like… the way Pammy and Karina make me feel...

[H Ghost]: *sigh*How big is she… or how short is the kid?

[Harley]: Both.

?: Ah, do not be afraid, my child. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first human to come here in a long time.

An anthromorphic Nubian goat was one of the ideas passing through Harley's brain now… but somehow she couldn't sense malice… or was that the trust the kid felt and was prepared to give? She wished she was actually out there alongside the kid instead of being in this driving seat Vex dimension… it would be a lot less complicated.

Toriel: Come! I will guide you through the catacombs. This way.

Seemingly in unison with the child's feelings and instincts Harley began to follow the goat woman in a blue robe… she wondered about the star shaped sparkle in the leaves… it resembled a mote of light… ignoring it

[H Ghost]: Well… this isn't too bad…

Toriel walked fast… or Harley found herself slow due to the limitations of a child's body… Toriel paused at the top of a pair of stairs leading into what must be the ruins… , she followed Toriel who entered the purple building… the goat woman was fast enough that Harley was tempted to blink after her… but Toriel occasionally paused for the kid to catch up… so she needn't break knowledge that her light could be expressed through the child's body.

The stopped in a room with stone panels and a lever…

Toriel: Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in operation of the ruins.

Harley chose to yawn at this point, missing the patterns Toriel treaded upon before pulling the lever to open the door, though her ghost stored the visual input as a video.

Toriel: The ruins are full of puzzles, ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room… please adjust yourself to the sight of them.

She followed Toriel to the next room… there was the clear sound of water running… Harley glazed over what Toriel said… as they slowly moved along the room… she got it, pull the switches with yellow arrows pointing at them to disable the floor spikes blocking the way to the next room… hunters had gifted instincts for such things… Cayde-6 always left an impression that firepower could be used to solve everything… she wondered if she could get a gun into the child's hands for an easier time… admittedly, it was probably easier to pull some switches than to shoot the spikes until they were harmless. She could feel the room shake when she was done.

Toriel: Splendid! I'm proud of you.

There was a dummy in the following room. Toriel stopped and addressed the kid again.

Toriel: As a human living in the Underground, monsters may attack you… You will need to be prepared for this situation. However, worry not. The process is simple. When you encounter a monster you'll enter a fight. When you're in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time, I'll come to resolve the conflict. Practice talking to the dummy.

[H Ghost]: I wish she could hear us both, could you try telling her through the kid how stupid and unnecessary that sounds?

[Harley]: Well, like they say, bullets speak louder than words… but in this case…

The child seemed to stroll over to the dummy… then Harley lunged with a Blink strike hunter melee… The dummy crumbled into dust leaving nothing…

Toriel: Ahh, the dummies are not for fighting! They are for talking! We do not want to hurt anybody, do we…? Come now.

Toriel went to the next room…

[Harley]: I'm starting to wonder if I want to scream at or hit her…

[H Ghost]: Try to be patient… remember, we're doing this to keep the kid safe as well…

[Harley]: Assuming this actually is a kid and not some funny vex trick! Ugh… this is hard and tedious! Just give me a Minotaur to shoot! Even Quodron would be fine again!

[H Ghost]: Really?

[Harley]: Er… no, being stuck in detain bubbles from him… you can see your guns rust in front of your eyes, it sucks…

[H Ghost]: This really would be a lot easier if we were outside with the kid…

[Harley]: I'm going batty just keeping up this charade! If the kid's brain is still working through this there's gonna be some heavy therapy needed!

When they entered Toriel seemed to be peeking back in concern since the child was taking so long to follow it got a bit worrying… but she smiled and her expression calmed back down when Harley directed the kid to follow her.

Toriel: There is another puzzle in this room… I wonder if you can solve it?

[Harley]: Hopefully it leads to a shiny…

H ghost:*sighs and looks down at an angle in an imitation of exasperation*

When they turned a corner a Froggit leapt out attacking the kid… out of reflexes towards sudden startling objects that charge… Harley stabbed back with the hunter knife… and the kid struck with the stick in synchronization. The Froggit crumbled into dust after shuddering a little from the blow… then she made the kid to follow Toriel… who didn't notice what had happened due to being a few passageway turns away from where they were…

[Harley]: That spooked me…

[H Ghost]: You might want to note that you've generated 5 more motes of light from that…

[Harley]: Sweet! So these are actually minions of darkness! It's ok to kill them! Fire up some blue polyphage… they must count as Vex right?

[H Ghost]: Hmmm…

Toriel was waiting for them at a bridge that seemed to be covered in spikes…

Harley: Oh cool! I wanna play that!

Toriel: This is the puzzle but… here take my hand for a moment.

Harley: D'aww…

[H ghost]: Do what the nice goat woman says…

Harley actually did remember her mother holding her hand on Mars from the memories of her past life thrown together in the FWC experiment… before the city was swallowed into the sand ocean… where the cabal and vex seemed to fight forever with Taken occasionally appearing from what seemed to be a black undulating orifice in the sky that had black, glowing explosive diarrhea. This was familiar and for a moment she let herself sink into that illusion… the spikes… the correct ones seemed to retract and basically it was walking through a self-clearing path with some twists and turns. They were soon on the other side when Toriel let go of the kid's hand. She looked a little apologetic…

Toriel: Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now.

[H Ghost]: Wow goat lady, thanks for stating the obvious, a kid starting elementary school and spikes.

[Harley]: I don't care… I like her… she seems nice…

[H Ghost]: Most guardians don't get to remember their days in the Golden age…

[Harley]: Bite me… oh wait… right, you can't…

[H Ghost]: I should have gotten that big green guy in power armor asleep aboard the Forward Unto Dawn wreck… it'd be nicer to be with him than you.

[Harley]: Awww no, you don't get to say that since that other ghost made it to him before you.

The stopped their typical conversation that was somewhere between banter and bickering when Toriel spoke up in the next room again.

Toriel: You have done excellently thus far, my child. However I have a difficult request to ask of you… I would like for you to walk to the end of this room by yourself… Forgive me for this.

Harley made the child's body sprint after Toriel, though the goat lady's long strides made her walk far faster than a child's sprint.

Harley: Aww… goat lady! Don't go! You're the closest thing I've got to…

[H Ghost]: Come on, just go after her… let me tap into your visual… wow, she just turned and hid behind that pillar…

[Harley]: I'll just play along…

[H Ghost]: You wanted to throw a tantrum at her, then now you're getting nostalgic childhood bits…

[Harley]: Oh shush dinklebot…

[H Ghost]: I should look into getting a chassis that would let me act on your requests of "bite me".

She was the the other side of the long room before too long. Toriel emerged from behind the pillar where she had taken cover… because technically she didn't qualify for hiding there since she was spotted doing so.

Toriel: Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me. However there was an important reason for this exercise… to test your independence.

Harley's ghost took this moment to snort… she laughed and giggled in return and pet the Crimson shell in was currently using… Hunters were known for a fiercely independent and solitary streak after all. When they calmed down, the child's hands had a cellphone… apparently she had continued talking…

Toriel: …Be good alright?

With that, the kid was alone again…

[Harley]: How much of that did you catch?

[H Ghost]: Something something 5 minutes later… gave the kid a cellphone… be good my child… ha!

[Harley]: I do miss actually being allowed to be a kid…

[H Ghost]: New guardians are actually treated with kids gloves… you kinda jumped the shark when you took Lakshimi 2's offer to rebuild your memories of your former life from what amounted to a Vex dimension calculator!

Harley: Well I don't really regret that…

[Harley]: Oops, made the kid say it.

5 minutes later along with a phone call from Toriel saying she would be delayed…

Harley: Wanna check this place out a bit?

[H Ghost]: You sure that's a good idea?

Harley: We got a phone to nanny goat, and I'm bored stiff here… plus the kid's body seemed to be able to use light from me so…

[H Ghost]:Well, I can't stop you anyways…

Harley: What could possibly go wrong?

Harley's ghost didn't reply… she believed that despite everything, that was a fierce, competent and determined hunter underneath a ditzy façade resultant from the FWC experiment… after all… a dead Atheon, Crota and Oryx were on their track record…

Toriel rang them again.

Toriel: Hello this is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you? There are puzzles ahead I have yet to explain. It would be dangerous to try to solve them yourself. Be good alright?

[H Ghost]: You'd think she might as well have let us just follow her…

Harley: Yeah, if we linger a small white dog might steal her phone or something, heh.

Harley peered around… the place was quite magenta… with moss in some areas… she elected to head north… a bowl of candy… Harley still remembered the Festival of the lost and grabbed as many as she could… which amounted to 4 due to child sized hands… and the bowl tipping over and spilling everything onto the ground…

[H Ghost]: Look at what you've done…

Harley: Bite me.

Whimsun came in alongside froggit… Harley paused to study them… and was surrounded by magical butterflies while froggit leapt at the child, forcing her to evade in the now limited space…

[H Ghost]: We have to keep the kid safe.

Harley: Then there's only one way to do this…

The sound of a bladedancer powering up the arc blade echoed throughout the corridor from the child's body… when it fizzled out she found the kid's hands covered in the dust from slain monsters… she could feel some injuries on the kid. But the child's pockets clinked with gold. She decided to try a monster candy out… to her relief the child's injuries ceased to pain as the bruises and cuts knitted.

Harley: Is there nothing here that will leave a harmless kid alone?! The eye things and vegetable monsters weren't much friendlier…

[H Ghost]:To be fair… they did see a glowing Arc infused child lunging at them… maybe we should stick to blinks and see if they try to hit us again? Because you got another 5 motes of light…

Harley: I'll dump it on the FWC when I get back to the tower…

The phone rang again.

[H Ghost]: Must be Toriel again…

Harley: My mama was this annoying as I can recall…

Toriel: Hello? This is Toriel. For no reason in particular, which do you prefer? Butterscotch or Cinnamon?

[H Ghost]: Wow… she wants us to wait for her to make dessert while these magic monsters attack the kid?

[Harley]: Might have been safer in that room… but the kid isn't defenseless since I'm driving, I'll guide the kid home then we'll work something out for ourselves.

Harley: Butterscotch!

Toriel: Thanks for your selection.

The kid had hardly taken another step when the phone rang again… Harley shared an exasperated look at with her ghost, which responded with a roll of its blue eye.

[Harley]: She did this a lot too.

Harley: Hello? Ms T?

Toriel: Hello, this is Toriel…

[H Ghost]: Like we have anybody else's contacts on that thing… oh wait, I have an idea, lets settle her call first.

Toriel: You do not dislike Cinnamon do you? I know what your preference is but… Would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate?

Harley: Nah, it'll be fine.

Toriel: Right, right… thanks for being patient by the way.

[H Ghost]:… she is making dessert.

Harley: Didn't you think of something else earlier?

She had fidgeted with the room and deduced she needed to shove a rock onto a switch to deactivate the spike trap in front… it was a bit harder to do than she expected… flaws of a child's body… as she crossed the deactivated row of spikes the phone rang for a third time… Harley actually stamped her feet and had a mini fit from the irritation.

[H Ghost]: I remembered something important but I can't remember what it is now…

Harley: Hiya Ms T…

Toriel: Hello? You do not have any allergies do you?

[H Ghost]: Making dessert and putting a kid at risk of being killed by frogs, butterflies, sapient spinach and cyclops…

Harley: Why?

Toriel: Huh? Why am I asking? No reason… no reason at all.

[Harley]: Wow… but I think I kinda like her… nobody that bad at lying can be trying to trick us.

A triple switch variant of the rock puzzle came up next… it was simple except for the 3rd rock being sapient and took some effort to coax into position atop a switch… in fact despite the kid's body lacking physical strength she was sure it would have been easier had the rock been inanimate… She had the time and chance to fire off another bladedance at those attacking the kid… and did so with gusto…

The path forward seemed to be barred by a weird white ghost looking thing on the ground which faded away mysteriously as she approached it.

Harley: Yeah that's right, leave the kid alone!

There was another room with a badly cracked floor and leaves scattered all over the level below connected by stairs… after one fall… Harley's ghost scanned the layout of the place, making it simple to clear... they both sighed when the phone rang again… Harley even facepalmed.

Toriel: Hello?

Harley: Hi.

Toriel: I just realized its been a while since I cleaned up. I was not expecting to have company so soon. There are probably a lot of things lying about here and there. You can pick them up but do not carry more than you need. Someday you might see something you really like. You will want to leave room in your pockets for that.

[H Ghost]: Well, there's only so much the kid can hold…

Harley: Lets not think about it, I don't want to end up hating her.

Another spike trap triggered by a switch on a floor below, which was somehow accessible through cracked floors and stairs that all lead to the same air vent… then rotating sets of switches that were colored and needed specifics pressed to deactivate the spike gate…The Misgosp, Loox, Moldsmal… also fell to Harley's fierce protection of the child…

She took an offbeat path which lead to a balcony… and found a knife… a toy knife.

[Harley]: Eh, it'll have to do…

[H ghost]: You could still probably channel light into it… it's better than that twig.

Harley: Yeah… shame it's plastic… it this were metal I could sharpen it into something.

She dropped the stick over the side of the building… and took a moment to enjoy the view… then sauntered back out..

Harley: Alright! Who else wants to try to harm a kid?!

But nobody came… she paced for a few minutes before passing the dead tree… Toriel emerged from the building here mumbling to herself and pulling her phone out… she hadn't seen the kid yet… then she heard the phone she passed the child ring and came over in surprise.

Toriel: How did you get here my child? Are you hurt? There there, I will heal you. I should not have left you alone for so long.

[H Ghost]: Wow lady, you think? While making something with Cinnamon or Butterscotch?

Toriel: It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this. Err…

[H Ghost]:… Poor neurotic goat woman.

[Harley]: Shush! She's just trying to be nice…

Toriel: Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer, come, small one!

Harley interacted with the twinkle at the left of the entrance…

"Determination."

[H Ghost]: Did you say that?

[Harley]: Huh? No I didn't… you… heard something I didn't?

[H Ghost]: Hm…

She followed Toriel into the house.

Toriel: Do you smell that?

[H Ghost]: *groans* as if being stuck with a guardian who let FWC fry her brain wasn't bad enough.

[Harley]: Hey I recognize the smell! It's pie!

Toriel: Surprise! It's a Butterscotch-Cinnamon pie! I thought we might celebrate your arrival. I want you to have a nice time living here. So I will hold off on snail pie for tonight…

[H Ghost]: Body of a plushy, food tastes of Eric Morn.

Harley giggled and so did the child…

Toriel: Here, I have another surprise for you.

Harley followed Toriel to the right of the house… she batted her ghost off her shoulder which had rested there in imitation of a friend doing so.

Toriel: This is it! A room of your own. I hope you like it!

[H Ghost]: Wait… what… what about the kid's family… she can't just adopt like this… its… kidnapping! Isn't it? Pay some attention please…

Harley as the child was snuggling up to Toriel's side as an affectionate dog or cat would while getting her hair ruffled lovingly by Toriel.

Harley: Hey, something smells weird…

Toriel: Is something burning…? Um, make yourself at home!

Harley went in… it certainly was like a typical child's room… there was a bed she couldn't resist napping on as well…

[H Ghost]: Wow, really?

[Harley]: The kid's had a long hard day, and frankly… there's nothing we're told to bum off that will simply let us end this like a strike… I wish Mr.J and Ms.K were here, but I'm on my own… so yeah… I'm only good at being told what to do now that I think about it, they always were the smarter ones… even in the crucible… I'm ok at 6s but I like only working with them in 3s…

Harley's ghost decided to refocus her thought surfing Guardian's mind.

[H Ghost]: Guardians don't actually need to sleep, ever.

[Harley]: Well, we still can… and it feels good, so if you don't mind…

[H Ghost]: Sometimes I really wonder what kind of person you would be if you had said no to Lakshimi 2 that day… Curiosity is supposed to be the warlock's strong suit… you're a hunter and supposed to be independent…

[Harley]: Not of all us came here being chosen from live specimens like Ikora! Or that guy who used to own my other hand cannon…

[H Ghost]: He… volunteered.

The ghost was greeted by both Harley and the kid's snores.


	5. Heartbreak

**Heartbreak**

"Eternity is very close. Can you feel yourself slipping?"

Harley awoke… there was a sweet delightful smell in the room, which was dark… darker than when she went to sleep… she got up… there was some dim light, just enough to see the place… The sweet smell grew stronger as she paced the room… the child's foot made contact with a plate which clinked… she bent down and picked it up… Butterscotch-Cinnamon pie… she continued towards a lamp and turned it on… ignoring the box of shoes that had sizes for several different kids of varying age.

[H Ghost]: Sleep well? By my internal clock you actually went 10 hours.

Harley: *Yawn* Yeah…there was a mirror down the hall… I'm gonna take a good look…

She noted one room was locked for renovations on the way to the mirror…

[Harley]: It's me… Harley… Damn… this kid's a bit of a mess… am I in a guy or girl's body? I can't tell.

[H Ghost]: Why not just check between the legs? You'll need to take a bathroom break later anyway as the kid…

[Harley]: Actually… No, would that make me a pedophile? Checking a kid's junk?

[H Ghost]: It is a legitimate explanation and situation… but if you don't want to maybe it's not as important for now anyway.

She went into the door that wasn't locked…

Harley: This must be goat lady's room! Hm… why're nearly all the plants in the house dead?

[H Ghost]: That's gloomy…

Harley saw what looked like a diary but after reading one lame pun inside she gave up immediately and ventured back out, though part of her was tempted to jump and bounce on Toriel's bed… the sensation didn't purely come from herself.

She was back at the entrance to the house and moved over to a drawer… a calendar dating to 201-something was inside, the last number was torn off… a date was circled on it.

[H Ghost]: Finally! The problem's answered… It's when are we… not where…

Harley: Or and where… I have no way to tell how old this thing is too… if only you could come out and scan this.

[H Ghost]: Check out what's downstairs…

The stairs resounded loudly with each footstep despite only bearing the weight of a child… there was a wispy howl echoing in the place… like a blizzard blowing on the door of a home… Harley suddenly realized there were footsteps behind her… Toriel must have heard her coming down here. She took the child's hand… gently but firmly, like a mother leading her children away from a cliff… this even went into the tone of her voice.

Toriel: I think you should play upstairs.

Toriel was stronger than the kid physically… not that Harley resisted, and let herself be led back up the stairs by a hand hold… some part of her wanted to just obey the motherly presence Toriel emitted… yet deep inside she knew that it wouldn't be too good for a kid to live here for good… especially with her in the kid's head… or her directing the kid's actions like this… Toriel walked much faster than the kid, but Harley wasn't making a run… she knew Toriel wasn't trying to brush off the kid anyway…

Toriel settled into an armchair and pulled out a pair of reading glasses… she went past into the kitchen… almost by instinct the first thing she did was happen upon the fridge… which had a bar of chocolate within… a strong feeling of want for it came over her… and she reached for it as the child…

[Harley]: Oh my God… it's so good!

[H Ghost]: On one hand… I should remind you of our duty to protect the kid… on the other… you are somehow in control of the kid's body and you're definitely making a perfect cover as one.

Harley washed her hands and mouth… noting some white fur stuck in the drain of the sink… she checked under it instinctively, as her ghost had just reminded her… though the movement felt more… natural when doing so… somehow.

[Harley]: How does she make pies that huge without knives? One would be useful for the long term…

[H Ghost]: We should talk to her directly… maybe get some information…

Harley went up to Toriel's armchair and leaned her head over the armrest… Toriel noticed immediately.

Toriel: Up already I see?

Harley: Yeup.

Toriel: Um, I want you to know how glad I am to have someone here. There are so many old books I want to share. I want to show you my favorite bug-hunting spot.

Harley: Cool.

Toriel: I've also prepared a curriculum for you education.

Harley: Sw… well…

Harley pouted hard when she finished processing what had been said to her, she certainly remembered school as a kid… it felt like a prison. Toriel's mouth twitched in response.

Toriel: This may come as a surprise to you, but I've always wanted to be a teacher.

Harley raised an eyebrow at her… Toriel raised her own, the kind of scrutinizing self-contemplation.

Toriel:…actually perhaps that isn't very surprising. Still. I am glad to have you living here.

[H Ghost]: Our beloved smother.

Toriel: Oh, did you want something? What is it?

Harley: Nothing.

Toriel: Well talk to me again if you need anything.

[Harley]: I don't know how to do this.

[H Ghost]: Come on, we can't stay here, and neither can the kid… nevermind that we got to figure out how to stop you from influencing the kid's actions… and how to get back to the tower… from the 21st century… and don't forget Jing and Karina.

She busied herself with a random page from a history book on the shelf beside tools that looked like they had been filed to be less sharp for some reason…

[H Ghost]: Yeap, that seems like a king real lousy with names to me alright.

Harley decided to steel herself for the hard part and went back to Toriel…

Toriel: Oh hello, did you want to hear about the book I am reading? It's called "72 uses for snails". How about it?

[H Ghost]: Just ask her how to go home…

[Harley]: You're not the boss of me Dinklebot.

Harley: Sure!

Toriel: Here is an exciting snail fact, did you know that snails have a chainsaw-like tongue called a radula? Interesting.

Harley: How to exit the ruins?

Toriel's eyes flickered for a moment…

[H Ghost]: Ooo boy.

Toriel: …I have to do something. Stay here.

She took off her reading glasses and placed the book against the chairs armrest and walked… no… ran off…

[H Ghost]: Get after her!

[Harley]: Yeah duh!

The sound of somebody going downstairs was echoing through the house… no wonder Toriel knew immediately… Harley jumped over the railing and blinked as she landed below to remove the momentum that would hurt the kid for sure from such a fall.

Toriel: You wish to know how to return "home" do you not? Ahead of us lies the end of the ruins. A one-way exit to the rest of the underground. I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Now be a good child and go upstairs.

[H Ghost]: This… is bad.

Harley sprinted after Toriel, who still had a much higher footspeed… she paused again, not looking back… and spoke, her tone now harsher…

Toriel: Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die.

[H Ghost]: Very bad…

Toriel: You naïve child… If you leave the ruins… They… Asgore… Will kill you.

[Harley]: Did she just say ass gore?! This is...

[H Ghost]: Somehow that's worse than how fast this is escalating can't you just talk to her? Something?

Toriel: I am only protecting you, do you understand?

Harley: I…

Toriel: …go to your room.

There was a turn where the light wintry breeze could be felt… a harsh chill that blended with Toriel's increasingly embittered… cracking voice.

Toriel: Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning.

And the door… Toriel was stopped in front of it… Harley found her hand reaching for where the toy knife was kept…

Toriel: You want to leave so badly? Hmph. You are just like the others. There is only one solution to this.

The handle of the toy blade seemed to fit the kid's hands perfectly…

Toriel: Prove yourself… Prove to me you are strong enough to survive.

[H Ghost]: Well… at least this is familiar territory… ready?

Harley: We could just…

She had to blink from spiraling waves of fire that issues from Toriel's hands… and slide under some waves then jump and cancel into another blink again.

[Harley]:G…goat mom… I hope you really are tougher than everyone else earlier… because I really don't want to… do this.

[H Ghost]: Super's… ready.

Another wave of Toriels hands sent embers bouncing off the hall around her… one struck the kid… it burned… she could feel the kid's fear and urge to run away…

[H Ghost]: If she's really trying to kill the kid, we have a problem here!

[Harley]: I… I felt that… it really… hurts… this… hurts…

Harley: For humanity.

Toriel: Huh?

Harley activated her blade dance… and the child's body coursed with Arc energy… she unflinchingly walked through one of the fireballs Toriel was sending… the Arc energy reducing the resultant damage taken… and for a moment she was in the crucible again… the child's body moving as smoothly and sleekly as she had in combat against other guardians… The glowing sparking toy made contact with the underside of Toriel's eye… and drew a great slash across her robes… leaving blue sparking arc particles where the deep slash was. Toriel's expression was one of shock and her voice sounded of horrific surprise.

Toriel: Y… you… really hate me that much?

Harley:… I…

Toriel: Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you here. Not you… But…

The cracks from the fatal injury intensified with more a brighter blue glow as arc charged particles began to billow out more intensely… Toriel smiled… but it was a crazed… horrified smile… as if she had learned something she hadn't meant to…

Toriel:... them!

Harley dropped her knife… mouth agape… as Toriel sank to one knee, taking her final breaths…

Toriel: Ha… ha…

Her body degraded into dust, not from the wound but rather… as the wind picked up… Toriel was just… blown away by it… a trembling white heart lingered in front of Harley for a moment… who reached her hand out to try to grasp and keep it safe… when suddenly it split down the middle as her hand went under it… and shattered… Harley placed that hand over her chest as she sank to her knees feeling the strength leave her legs… as did the child… she wanted to scream and cry at how unfair that fight had been… how could she have known… if only there was another way she knew of… that she didn't even have to go through that at all… and why was it that after putting down so many Fallen… Hive… Vex… Cabal and Taken… that killing this one goat woman in defense of a child felt so awful… That her heart was now as shattered as Toriel's soul… but she was still here, alive.

[H Ghost]: I'm sorry… but…

Harley: Why did you have to make it so there was no other way!

[H Ghost]: I…

Harley: Stupid goat lady… this… was… ALL! YOUR! FAULT! Now you're dead… and I… I don't want to care anymore…

Harley got back up after an unknown amount of time…

[H Ghost]: How shall we proceed now?

Harley: It'll be much easier if I… just worry about the kid…

The child's hand gripped the knife harder than ever before as the last of tears on the face dried leaving stains… that were slightly grey from Toriel's remains catching on… and the accursed flower whose logic and way of thinking had just been proving right was waiting ahead… Harley wanted to blinkstrike the damn thing and just end it… but it spoke… and the child's body stopped for now…

Flowey: Hahaha… You're not really human, are you?

[H Ghost]: Does it know about us in here?

[Harley]:…

Flowey: No. You're empty inside. Just like me. In fact… You're Chara right? We're still inseparable, after all these years… Listen. I have a plan to become all powerful.

[H Ghost]: What is it saying… Harley?

Harley: I'm listening…

Flowey: Even more powerful than you and your stolen soul. Let's destroy everything in this wretched world. Everyone, everything in these worthless memories… Let's turn them all to dust.

Harley flashed a crazed grin… she couldn't tell if she was cracking from what happened… but she nodded.

Flowey: That's a wonderful idea…

The plant burrowed away for now, leaving the kid alone…

[H Ghost]: What are you really planning…

[Harley]: I am a soulless creature…

[H Ghost]: No you're not… you've got memories of who you were unlike most guardians…

[Harley]: Stolen soul. Maybe that's something guardians were never meant to have because we have no soul…

[H Ghost]:…You might be misunderstanding what the flower meant, calm down and we'll…

[Harley]: Look, I never really was fit to be guardian… I don't know why I said yes to you when you found me… I can't remember it after that Vex machine… but I really am not human, just… a corpse raised from the dead in… a resemblance of life to do humanity's killing for it… but… if I make this kid strong through the flower's plans… then maybe… I won't need to kill anymore…

[H Ghost]: The fact that you feel bad after killing Toriel is proof that you do have a soul and are human… why not try not killing anything here on out as you guard the kid?

Harley: Maybe because… this is all I have ever known and done since waking up.

[H Ghost]: Don't entertain Pujari's ramblings too much… don't you know the exiled crazies are always warlocks somehow?

She stopped seeing what the child saw for a moment and looked at the Hand Cannon in her right hand… it's frame felt heavier and more purposeful now somehow… like how she now understood that this was once indeed a rose…


	6. Walking Corpses

**Walking Corpses**

Looking at you here, now. The smoke, ash and bone at your feet mark you as so much less. -{Redacted}'s ghost

It had been snowing outside… a forest in winter… Harley took in the smell of the place through the kid's nostrils… it was cold too… of course it was… Harley reflexively turned towards a bush at the left of the exit… she had thought for a moment there had been a crucible sniper in there aiming for her head… but this was within rage and she did a blink strike out of reflex… the shrub gave way to reveal a camera.

[H Ghost]: Maybe we should deal with it…

[Harley]: Forget it… let them try to take the kid then…

[H Ghost]: You sure you're ok? I don't just mean you… I mean what the flower said… and your consideration of killing these creatures…

[Harley]: They want to harm the kid, simple enough to me… don't attack the kid, I leave you alone. Simple…

[H Ghost]: That's really harsh… but… kill or be k…

[Harley]: I don't want to think about Flowey or… her… not now… it's my choice and I'll deal with what comes of it.

She wiped one last tear from her face.

[H Ghost]: Just be careful… Lakshimi 2's experiments may have changed who you should have been now… but you're still my guardian… and I do care about your wellbeing no matter what.

[Harley]: Do you think I can't tell the difference between hate and love anymore? Goat mom… did I hate or love her?

[H Ghost]: Focus… there's a path leading down and away from the ruins here and now… let's follow it.

There was a branch they looked like it might make a better weapon than the current plastic knife… but, the child's body wasn't strong enough to heft it… so Harley left it there… and a few steps forward later there was a loud snap. Harley back tracked to it… it had been broken.

[H Ghost]: Ominous…

[Harley]: We're definitely being followed… maybe the camera… nevermind, let's go forwards…

Harley deliberately started walking with uneven pacing… then she heard it… a footstep when she hadn't planted her foot into the snow… Harley pivoted on that one foot and leapt, then blinked… lunging at a black silhouette that seemed as tall as the child… a blink strike would… she missed… and began to wonder if she was hallucinating or seeing things…

Harley: You did see that my eyes saw something or someone, right?

[H Ghost]: Well… the kids eyes… but…

Harley: I'm sick of this! Why's everything trying to kill the kid?!

[H Ghost]: I think the goat lady really meant well, even if she was doing it in a selfish… child abducting kind of way… she looked lonely… like somebody who has a lot of love to give but nobody to… send it to… if that makes sense… I only see that on Eva's face in the tower.

[Harley]: March.

Harley didn't quite understand the mechanism she arrived at… it resembled a bar gate on a bridge… only… the gaps of the bars were wide enough to accommodate the width of the bridge… and this time she heard footsteps coming from behind again.

[H Ghost]: He or she must know we can hear that…

[Harley]: Then maybe they know they can beat us and aren't really trying?

[H Ghost]: It might be better than that… I hope.

The footsteps behind stopped.

?: Human.

Through the child's hand as she turned around, Harley felt a hand… made of pure bone. Skeletal… and a loud farting noise… long and drawn out as well.

?: Heheh… the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. It's always funny.

Harley and her ghost were a little startled as they had been mentally preparing for a fight…

?: That's… uh. Your cue to laugh. Or, uh, to emote at all?

[H Ghost]: Maybe we should give him a token smile?

?:( gee, lady, you really know how to pick 'em huh…?) OK, that's fine. Everyone's got their own sense of humor.

Harley giggled a bit and so did the child, the stout skeleton's smile seemed to broaden a hair.

?: I'm Sans, Sans the skeleton. I'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. But… y'know… I don't really care about capturing anybody…

Harley: Huh… that's… nice, everybody's been trying to hurt me since I got here…

San's patted the child on the back… his eye sockets somehow fusing in imitation of closed eyes leaving slits.

Sans: Now my brother Papyrus… he's a human hunting fanatic.

[H Ghost]: ...Poop.

Sans: Hey, actually, I think that's him over there. I have an idea. Go through this gate thingy. Yeah, go right through. My bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone.

They paced forward a bit… Sans ushered the kid towards an odd looking lamp.

Sans: Quick, behind that conveniently shaped lamp.

[H ghost]: Huh really?

Harley: You serious?

Sans:…uh, ok, I guess you don't have to.

A much lankier skeleton with a hasty gait came over… despite the seemingly bulky armor he was clad in…

Papyrus: Sans! Have you found a human yet!?

[H Ghost]: Should we…

[Harley]: Chill… I'm prepared to…

Sans: Yeah.

Papyrus: Really!? Wowie! Guess that's settled!

To their bewilderment Papyrus left shortly after that…

Sans: That worked out, huh? …are you just gonna stare at me or…?

Sans called out as Harley made to follow the path Papyrus took.

Sans: Well, I'll be straight-forward with you. My brother'd really like to see a human… So y'know… it'd really help me out…

Harley was a little creeped out by how sans pupils vanished at this point…

Sans:… If you kept pretending to be one.

When she looked back Sans was gone as well…

[H Ghost]: What do you think he knows?

[Harley]: That we… killed goat lady or that we're driving the kid?

[H Ghost]: Both and more?

She attended to the sparkle…

"16 left…"

[Harley]: Ok, I heard that this time…

[H Ghost]: What? I didn't… what was it?

[Harley]:…

[H Ghost]: You ok?

Harley:… No… something's wrong… out of… place… I… did I want to kill the goat lady?

[H Ghost]: Of course not… it was a horrible… don't blame yourself… she looked like she could take it to me too.

Harley: But I can feel nothing blasting through the aliens back there?

[H Ghost]: Don't blur the lines… that was our place and time… and we have little choice but to kill them, we're on the backfoot there in numbers, nor would they show mercy if we surrendered… here… we could stand to be… more careful?

Harley: I… need an infusion of light… when we get… back to the tower… I feel like that time when… P..Phogoth… and…

[H Ghost]:…Xyor?

Harley: I needa… take a break… for a bit…

Later Harley felt more composed and calm… she got back up and walked on, somewhat fearful of the world… Snowdrake and Ice Cap appeared… sighing.

Ice Cap: Jerry came too.

Harley took one look at the UFO shaped brown monster and felt immediate dislike… a sneeze without attempting to aim somewhere else or cover the mouth didn't help matters… she wondered how tough the kid's immune system was since she felt spittle hit the child's face…

Harley: You guys seem upset by his presence… why not… bail on him?

Snowdrake:…

Ice Cap: He's looking away licking his hands…

The two monsters and the child fled to where a seemingly random fishing pole was stubbed into the ground… they laughed… or tried to sincerely do so at Snowdrake's jokes… how much time passed didn't matter… and then… Jerry caught up… there was an awkward silence… just as Ice Cap convinced Snowdrake to go and make up with his father.

Jerry: You ditched me… for a human you never met before?! Our sworn enemy that we're supposed to report to King Asgore?!

Snowdrake:…

Ice Cap: So what? The child likes my hat… unlike you…

Snowdrake:… I'm actually getting help for my jokes, unlike your sneering face, jerk.

Jerry: You jerks! Traitors! I'll kill you all! Then that stupid human kid!

The monsters scuffled… but the kid lingered in silence…

[H Ghost]: You ok?

[Harley]: He… just… said kill… the kid… he'll…

[H Ghost]: Look I'm sure they're friends… they'll probably… Harley?

"Kill."

"Kill me?"

"Kill!"

"…or be killed."

"Kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill."

[H Ghost]: What the…

The mask of the third man was an exotic helmet with what was probably 3 hive ocular implants… Harley loved wearing it as a bladedancer, which was her favorite light aspect to use… however the left and right eyes of the mask went from bright green to the opposite color… a bright red… and the monsters paused when a loud electric buzz pierced the air, as the child somehow had a toy knife sparking with electricity…

[H Ghost]: Harley… don't… just… back away from them and let the Arc wear off… Harley?

One lunge… Jerry was now electrically charge rapidly dispersing dust particles… Ice Cap threw up in horror at the sight…

Snowdrake: Oh My God… what the hell?! He's literally and figuratively an ass but… nobody wanted too… You sick… twisted killing… aberration! Humans… king Asgore was right, all of you need to be killed.

To Snowdrake… it looked like the kid didn't answer but was smiling as the air crackled with static emitted from the human child's very being… and before recovering… Ice Cap was also dispersing into nothingness from one slash as well… an ominous air hung about the area as Snowdrake backed away… walking backwards into the fishing pole he regretted reeling in for a bit earlier… The Ice crescents he tried to fire to protect himself were being sidestepped with a playful nonchalance.

Snowdrake: Please… stay away… please… I…

Harley: Beg me… and I might…

Snowdrake: Please let me go… I… I have a mum and dad who love me very much… they… they'll be sad if I…

Harley: Insincere lying hypocrite… didn't you tell me you hated your dad?

Snowdrake: No… I… I was angry… I…ran away when mom… and… and then dad…

Harley: Ah… always so rash and hasty… like we once were… don't worry… you won't hate your dad anymore…

Snowdrake: I miss you mom… and dad… I'm sorry… to both of you…

Snowdrake's death whimpers were lost to the trees of Snowdin forest… Harley skipped back gleefully to where she had first met the trio.

Harley: Everything and everyone here is a walking corpse… apparently they just don't know it yet… why else would skeleton's be sentient and talking?

[H Ghost]:…

Harley: They're all dead, they just don't know that they are…

[H Ghost]:… Harley…

She went back to the sparkle that felt like a Vex conflux charged with light…

"15 left."

Harley plodded on down the path… Papyrus and Sans were there… she couldn't explain why she was so consumed by bloodlust… but part of her wanted to obey the urge… wouldn't it be so much easier to just care for only the kid and disregard anything else that wasn't human?

Papyrus: So Sans! When's the human showing up? I want to look my Sunday best, or at least my Tuesday pretty-good.

Sans: Don't you only have one outfit?

Papyrus: Yeah, but I could style my hair!

Sans: Oh right. Good idea. Say, why don't you look over there?

[H Ghost]: Didn't it… he, he see us last time?

[Harley]: Maybe it's selective blindness.

[H Ghost]: That very fast spinning is kind of creepy.

They both faced the other way…

Papyrus: Sans, oh my God… I'm dizzy, what am I looking at?

Sans: Behold.

Papyrus: Oh my God, why are you telling me to look at a rock?

Sans: Hey, what's that in front of the rock?

Papyrus: Oh my God! I have no idea what that is.

[H Ghost]: Maybe we should sneak past and away while the chance is still here…

[Harley]: Don't be silly, I don't feel like we're in danger at all.

Sans: Well. It's not a rock.

Papyrus: Not a rock? Oh No! By process of elimination! That means it's a human!

[H Ghost]: You know, I once saw an engram that decoded into something dating back to the 1960s… he reminded of what was on it… a wealthy man with an adopted son who fight crime in costume like a bat, with a similar car… I didn't know such detective processes could work.

Papyrus: Ahem! Human!

Harley: Finally… yeah?

Papyrus: Prepare yourself! For high jinks! For low jinks! Dangers! Puzzles! Capers! Japers! Being Captured! And other sorts of fun activities. Refreshments will be provided… If you dare!

He turned around and sprinted away…. Harley assumed it was for preparing the promises he just made…

Papyrus: Nyeh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh!

Sans: …and you don't even bat an eye huh?

Sans strolled off following his brother…

[H Ghost]: I'd say the shorter, fat one is probably a lot wiser in life.

Harley strolled on and didn't answer… nor did she pay attention to the cardboard box that the kid passed on their left… she felt her super was recharged during that whole series of talking… and the moment something antagonized the child, she was going to use it unhesitantly… it was nice to get lost in the electric trance of a blade dance… an addictive, powerful sensation.

She strolled on until she reached a sentry station…

?:Did something move? Was it my imagination? I can only see moving things…

Harley nonchalantly powered up the blade dance.

[H Ghost]: Wait… Don't!

?:…hey! I can't stop shivering all of a sudden… who's there?

Later…

Snowdin forest and town were… silent places… if one had just seen them, they might have described the place as a charming, quaint little hamlet… an ideal Christmas card picture setting… take those who inhabited the place out of the picture though… and you'd wonder if Konami had decided to start giving the Silent Hill franchise some form of respect again…

[H Ghost]: It's… quiet.

Harley: I have made it so… beautifully peaceful.

A strong cold wind was picking up as she guided the child through the town… she didn't shiver though… she couldn't explain the ecstasy she felt for some reason from the pile of motes of lights she got… no it wasn't quite from having them… rather it was… she put that thought on hold as a visible familiar silhouette who she had become thoroughly annoyed with over the course of the journey through the forest and town appeared before her.

She thought about how she had refused to cooperate with Papyrus… first the puzzle she simply walked through without caring what it would have been… might have been something to do with electricity… she didn't care about that then… so why would she now? She made Papyrus back off just by glaring him in the face then… he left shortly after that… that same face didn't work on Sans who had also been present… she was instead told to play along to make Papyrus happy…

Papyrus: Halt, human!

The word search she didn't even bother to read… though that one was by Sans… it actually made her laugh… sometimes a lot could be said by doing so little… she actually found the brother's rather heartwarming and entertaining… if there was something she was hesitant to kill now, it was both of them… Especially Papyrus, he was so endearingly naïve… like she would really halt here for him.

Papyrus: Hey! Quit moving while I'm talking to you! I, the great Papyrus have some things to say.

More stupid dead dogs that sucked compared to wolves and hyenas… after all, what kind of good dog would try to kill a kid? They had to have been bad… She passed by one that seemed to have been done for her already… vines were involved… Flowey had helped her?

Papyrus: First; You're a freaking weirdo! Not only do you not like puzzles, but the way you shamble about from place to place… The way your hands are always covered in dusty powder. It feels… like your life is going down a dangerous path. However. I Papyrus, see great potential within you! Everyone can be a great person if they try! And me, I hardly have to try at all. Nyeh heh heh heh heh heh!

She took another set of steps forward again.

Papyrus: Hey, quit moving! This is exactly what I am talking about! Human! I think you are in need of guidance! Someone needs to keep you on the straight and narrow! But worry not! I, Papyrus… Will gladly be your friend and tutor! I will turn your life right around!

The tile puzzle was pretty funny… Papyrus was so easy to troll by simply obeying the kid's urge to just walk through while he kept talking and expecting people to play by his rules… there were no rules on most of Earth during her time… except who stood at the end when combatants encountered each other… She also sealed her lips when he bombarded more pointless questions at the child… and Papyrus just gave up and left shortly after that…

Sans: Hey, puzzles might be fun. If you tried them…

Then the oversized dog in armor… before something that actually might have been a danger or challenge by Sans himself… which he then cancelled… because after much hesitating he realized he couldn't bring himself to do so… or had her trolling by just disregarding his puzzles gotten to Papyrus? He had seemed to hit some epiphany about his life there and then about appreciating friends and things he already had.

Sans: Hm…

Sans winked

Sans: Guess we didn't need your help to have a good time after all. Say. I've been thinking… seems like you're gonna fight my brother pretty soon. Here's some friendly advice. If you keep going thw way you are now…

San's eyes disappeared… Harley actually gasped and so did the kid.

Sans: You're gonna have a bad time.

There was a sound like a door opening and closing then Sans was gone… that was before she walked into a ghost town… the snowstorm was building up… bringing her back to the present.

Papyrus: I see you are approaching… are you offering a hug of acceptance? Wowie! My lessons are already working! I, Papyrus, welcome you with open arms!


	7. Existence is the struggle to exist

**Existence is the struggle to exist**

"The only way to make something good is to make something that can't be broken. And the only way to do that is to try to break everything"

"This is our message to the things that we will kill.

A species which believes that a good existence can be invented through games of civilization and through laws of conduct is doomed by that belief. They will die in terror. The lawless and the ruthless will drag them down to die. The universe will erase their monuments."

Sans left his room after getting the rest he needed so badly… there was something in the human that it took all of his power and will to stare down and attempt to threaten. Granted there wasn't a lot of that to go around… he managed to give Papyrus a warning before returning home for some badly needed sleep… He then got up and went to his brother's room… there was a note on it…

'Sans…

I thought about what you said regarding the human… that somebody so strong… wants to hurt, kill everyone… and that we should just stay home until they leave…

But that's the thing… we're leaving them alone. Some people aren't great at handling the pain that comes with it. Maybe they don't have the great friends we do.

Maybe they just need somebody who can show that they care or understand, and they will want to stop spreading that pain to everybody they see… maybe they just need to meet somebody who isn't scared of them.

I'm going to try Sans, to understand what pain has gotten into them, and make them realize they aren't bad to the bone. It's a hard puzzle to solve, one's own heart… and I want them to do so, and maybe they will stop being violent and hurting people for it.

Be home soon - Your brother Papyrus(pick up your sock!)

Sans, being a skeleton, was hollow except for the bones that comprised his body… but he found himself clutching at the hoodie jacket he wore very hard… as if he suddenly had organs, and they all were now made of lead… he took slow steps down to where his sock and a chain of post it notes were next to the TV… He regained enough rationality from the emotional bomb that just hit him…

Sans: Please tell me he brought it… please…

He checked Papyrus room… and under the kitchen sink for their Gaster Blasters, hoping Papyrus hadn't been too naïve to leave the devastating weapons behind for what he was attempting to do… he calmed a bit when he found some were missing.

Sans: Good… he'll be ok then, he'll be ok…

The town was in a panicked evacuation when he and Papyrus first came back in… during which he bolted their home door and took a nap for the human's attack to blow over… now it was empty… with an exodus trail of footprints in various shapes and sizes headed to the waterfall in the snow… he started searching for the footprint trail that would have been the child's… to his horror it was also going to waterfall, alongside Papyrus boot trail, which also went from their house and in the same direction…

Sans: Please, no… I shouldn't have slept, don't be dead Papyrus… please don't be dead… don't be dead… don't… be… dead…

Sans sprinted in his slippers into the howling blizzard… panting but refusing to slow his footsteps… worry for his brother seizing his entire being.


	8. Begins

**Begins**

You are a dead thing made by a dead power in the shape of the dead. All you will ever do is kill. You do not belong here. This is a place of life. – Pujari's records, Legend: The Black Garden

A fish woman sprinted throughout waterfall, ushering the influx of terrorized refugees fleeing Snowdin trying to talk into her phone over the crowd while shouting orders to the former residents of Snowdin.

Alphys: It's too late for Snowdin… we… we have to seal the way in here off, Undyne.

Undyne: It's never too late! Even if the dog guard was killed… there's still… Papyrus and Sans… they'll… they'll…

Alphys: Undyne… I…

Undyne: Don't say it… I'm going to try calling them again…

Alphys: I know you want to believe Papyrus is… Oh My God… He is!

Undyne: Really?

Alphys: I'll patch the camera feed to your phone… he's… he's… getting the human to stop without… fighting!

Undyne brought the phone down from her ear and looked at the screen… Gerson crept out from his shop cum abode and joined her… as Harley and Papyrus began to talk, the sound was a little muffled by the snowstorm, but it would work…

Undyne: Pap… Papyrus… please… j… just run…

Gerson: That lad is brave and big of heart…

Papyrus had him arms spread out for a hug… and to block the road…

Harley: I can't accept your offer, I don't deserve it.

Papyrus: Why not… what is it that has happened to you… try talking about it… I'll listen to everything… try to understand.

Harley: I'm just going home… I don't know how I'll get to it…

Papyrus: Poor human… I can see it in your eyes… there's so much pain and suffering inside you… you don't even know why you're doing this do you?

Harley: There's no time for this… and where I come from… our city is under siege daily… people who don't fight our enemies, die.

Papyrus: Take a chance then… I promise I'm not going to hurt you… and nobody else will, I won't let them… and I promise I won't let anybody else hurt you… if you promise them the same…

Harley: It doesn't work that way! This is all I know! This… is all I am good… for…k… ki… making things… die.

Harley attempted to run past Papyrus, however she found a wall of blue bones waiting…

Papyrus: Maybe your home isn't the best place for you… why not stay here?

Harley: Are you going to… hurt me?

Papyrus: No… never, those only harm the moving… please, tell me about yourself…

Harley: You're wasting valuable time, I'm leaving…

Papyrus: No, don't!

Harley blinked, expecting to appear on the other side of the blue bones… but despite the teleport… somehow the blue bones… she felt like she was struck with them, pain flooded her senses from the child. The bones faded as Papyrus cancelled the magical attack he had planted there to force a conversation with the child…

Papyrus: I'm sorry… but I really can't let you hurt anyone anymore… I never meant for you to… get hurt…

He cradled the child's body… which was bruised… Undyne felt relief in her heart… perhaps she had misjudged Papyrus to be too soft for the job… Papyrus helped feed the child a food item the kid was carrying…

Papyrus: Just promise me you won't kill anymore… and I'll let you go… I know I can't stop you…

The camera caught sight of the child hugging Papyrus… and slowly keeping one hand on the kid's shoulder as he slowly let the kid back onto her feet.

Harley: I… please… just go away… I can't promise you that… something's wrong with me… and I don't know what it is… I…

Papyrus: Then let me help… please…

Harley: Then… please let go… run, before I… make… m… murder…

The arc energy flashed through the child as she turned with an impossibly fluid move… a sparking buzz could be heard through the camera, Undyne gasped as she saw a glint in the child's hand that could only be a weapon… The cut passed through Papyrus arm… and he gasped in shock… as the rest of his body began to crackle with Arc power… from the wound…

Undyne: No… please…

Papyrus caught his head in his left hand as it fell off from his rapidly destabilizing body…

Papyrus: W-well, that's not what I expected…

Harley gasped in shock and stepped backwards… her hands remaining cupped over her mouth… there was a silent disbelief at what happened to all who were listening to Papyrus, who somehow still had his confident, assured smile on his face… as his body faded into Arc particles and were blown away in the snow storm… leaving his clothes and scarf next to his head… Undyne felt tears welling up in her eyes…

Harley: I'm so sorry, I didn't… want to… but it's… all I… am good for… there's something dark in me… I'm losing to it…

Papyrus: But… st… still! I believe in you! You can do a little better. Even if you don't think so! I… I promise…

Papyrus head was scattered by the snowstorm as he finished his final words… even as he turned to dust he still smiled with that unfathomable belief of the goodness in all things living… Undyne saw the child run away, with fleeting, guilty… fearful glances back at what just transpired… she dropped her phone… and cried…

Gerson: I'm sorry… but foolishness and bravery… they are… all walkers of the same road… the difference is the ones lucky enough to come back to tell the tale…

Undyne: Don't you dare say that… it's so unfair… how can somebody who believes the best of everything, everyone… be punished for it?! It's not right, it's not right… it's not!

Gerson stepped away as she continued to sob for what felt like eternity… but something got her attention again… A familiar voice coming from her phones again… Alphys hadn't turned the stream off… she probably was feeling the same as… Undyne picked up her phone, hand trembling as Sans came into view on screen…

Sans: Papyrus! Can you hear me?! Papyrus!

Sans sprinted to check the tree's lining the sides of the road… there was something that looked like a white skull lying beneath it…

Sans: Ok, it's here… maybe he's nearby… Papyrus! It's me! Come out now! I'll… I'll help you capture the human!

Sans was clearly panicking as he checked the area, not even bothering to hide his ability to teleport anymore…

Sans: Papyrus!? Papyrus!?

And the inevitability happened after who knew how long as Undyne painfully watched, realizing that there was nothing she could do to spare Sans from feeling the same grief that was keeping her on her knees now… Sans hands were trembling… it was a different feeling… seeing Sans learn the truth like this first hand, but no less terrible than the loss felt from Papyrus murder.

Sans: Papyrus! Oly-oly-oxen-free! If you're hiding and using this as a distraction it was a great choice! You can come out now! Please Papyrus… please come out!

Sans was trembling as he got back up… holding Papyrus scarf…

Sans: Papyrus… I'm sorry… I should have just… been here… with you… I was… lazy. So you… paid the price… Papyrus!

Undyne crushed her phone in her hands as Sans screamed skyward and the Gaster Blaster under the tree fired a laser as if mourning together with him… Gerson's footsteps could be heard behind her… She felt her grief beginning to turn into determination that a grievous injustice needed to be righted… it was unacceptable for every second passing that was not done… she stood up again. How badly she wanted to be there herself now, to tell sans it's ok… it's going to be ok… and put his jacket around him to let him know the world hadn't ended yet.

Gerson: I had been trying to make up a speech for you while I looked for this… but… it looks like you don't need it… good thing too, I forgot my lines when I found it.

Undyne took the armor Gerson had carted out for her… She dried her eyes… and thought about using a metaphor regarding apples never rotting far from the tree, but then… she realized Gerson wasn't her parent, so she dropped the idea and settled for the simplest polite option… Conviction burned in her soul.

Undyne: Thank you…

Gerson: I don't know how good it'll be against that child… but… this design was used by those who survived the first war… there's more to it than metal… like I can tell there's more to you than meets the eye.

Undyne: You should leave… the kid can't be too far out.

Gerson: Gwahahaha… don't worry about me… I've lived long and good… If anything maybe I can make whats left of my life more valuable… since this kid is here to finish a war started so long ago…

Undyne: Stubborn…

Gerson: You got it from me, Gwahaha… now hold your sass and off you go!

Undyne:… To war…

Undyne went to where she knew one of Alphys cameras was and addressed her friend through it.

Undyne: Alphys, I'm going to set this injustice right… keep coordinating the relief efforts and… watch me win.

There was only one passage between waterfall and snowdin… Alphys wasn't wrong… they could seal this area off… but Undyne was sure she would be as good a seal as any… found an ambush spot across a river and laid in wait… voices echoed down the cave… it didn't sound as squeaky as the human's though… in fact it was from an over enthusiastic fan of her's.

Monster kid: Yo! Are you sneaking out to see her too? Awesome… she's the coolest right! I wanna be just like her when I grow up. Hey! Don't tell my parents I'm here. Ha ha…

Undyne turned back and sighed… it was probable the kid got separated or wasn't even aware of the severity of the situation… then she heard a rustle in the shrubs she had been keeping in her field of view and brandished her spear immediately, proceeding to check it… her armored boots clanking heavily… She calmed down after a moment, she was certain something like that human would have attacked her straight away… she backed away… perhaps the human had already passed through here, she had spent quite a lot of time crying over Papyrus…

She moved on… sprinting… the plank road across the river section would make for a good spot to attack from, as so far it seemed the human wasn't capable of projectile attacks… she took cover behind the stone pillars that had formed from years of Stalactites and stalagmites growing and eventually joining with each other… part of her wanted a duel to the death with the human… but she realized being pragmatic would be more valuable here… stopping the humans rampage was as important as avenging Papyrus… No matter how she felt about those who had fallen in the line of duty… no matter how much she wanted to hear the human die while croaking out the reason for attacking Papyrus and everyone so wantonly.

The human finally appeared… and it was clearly unaware of her presence… she began to charge her magic into her spear… she slowed her breathing, anticipating the human's movement course… was her prey talking to itself?

Harley: I, I don't… I… didn't want to… mean to… why wouldn't he just let me pass… compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share…

She ignored it, nobody would kill everything in their way by accident. She anticipated her target's pace… and prepared… she hurled the magic spear with all the fury and outrage she felt right now… but her target stopped just one step away from where it would have struck… and she missed, the magical spear drove into the bridge… the human gave a general glance in her direction… whatever it had been mumbling forgotten.

Undyne: Damnit!

She didn't do charged ones anymore, now opting to throw multiple weaker magic spears… which her target easily avoided with a short distance teleport and energy crackling around the legs that let it run and even slide in ways that defied friction… She started hurling more and more in rapid succession… she never got a clean hit though she probably managed a scrape or scuff… she continued chasing and throwing spears while her target continued to be unbelievably evasive…

She lost sight of her target fleeing into some shrubbery… she another 6 magical spears in frustration… but connected with nothing… if the human was fleeing perhaps it wouldn't engage her in close combat? She leapt onto the plank road and walked into the shrubs… Her prey was here… she could just grab the human in one hand and…

Undyne: What?! You?! Where's the human?! Arrgh…

Monster Kid:… I… I've never been happier…

Undyne: Go home or to your parents. Now!

Perhaps the human had more abilities than just bladework and killing… was invisibility possible? She moved off… mixing what just happened and her knowledge of the area to set up another ambush point… she wondered if the human had a gigantic sword or a magical transformation… at least down here a skyscraper sized mech couldn't be brought to bear against her…

As she made her way onwards, part of her chided herself… she had chosen bad tactics… by letting the kid in the refugee parties were at risk… and now their blood would be on her hands… when she could have sealed the place off and fought the human… If Papyrus had the strategic knowledge and understanding… he wouldn't be happy she let her desire to avenge him get in the way of saving more lives… she would have to handle the consequences of what her actions wrought no matter what.

Undyne didn't have time to appreciate the view of the city and the castles as she sprinted onwards… she had chosen the second plank road as the next ambush… This time… she planned better, even if she couldn't score a killing hit… she would corner the human… this plank road was suspended over a deep drop… surely a human could not survive such a fall…

She positioned herself on the lower floor and laid in wait… the pitter patter of human feet came again… she got a confirmed sight that this wasn't the kid monster… and the human foolishly stopped immediately above her… she prepared multiple attacks and launched them up through the ceiling… and cursed herself for not using a charged spear to just pierce the center of where she attacked… she had anticipated the human would have made an evasive maneuver at the noise, but now… her target had survived the attack just by not moving an inch… and was aware she was on the offense again.

The chase began anew… however the now lost element of surprise had been important as her attacks caused the gaps in the plank road to light up where her spears would breach from. She wasn't without a proper backup plan this time and attempted to herd the target to that area which stuck out and didn't quite go anywhere… that kept her from succumbing to frustration at the human's rather fantastic evasive ability…

The human had clearly learned from the encounter with Papyrus and didn't attempt to blink when surrounded by spears, instead opting to stand in the gaps between incoming attacks… but she knew her plan was working… it was taking a long time but she was slowly but surely forcing the human into that dead end… she clambered onto the same floor as the human when that goal was achieved… preparing for a duel to the death…

Harley: Why so serious? Have it your way!

She recognized that electric buzz before the attack that ended Papyrus without even striking him in an area that would have been fatal… Undyne immediately sliced away at the plank road… breaking the section the human was on off… the human screamed all the way down into the abyss below…

Undyne: For you, Sentries of Snowdin… Doggo. Lesser Dog. Dogamy. Dogaressa. Greater dog. Papyrus…

Undyne wondered what she was supposed to feel now… she expected to taste a climax of euphoria… but right now she just wanted to get to her house and retrieve a spare phone to check on those who were still living… and maybe tell them they were safe…

Down below was an area of stinking water… where somehow quite a patch of buttercups had miraculously sprouted in abundance…


	9. Falls

**Falls**

Take enough devastation to feed your worm, and a little more to grow, and take the tithe of your followers. Then take another portion, as much as you dare, and use it for your own purposes. But if it is too much, your peers will kill you and take it. Then tithe the remainder to the ascendant you serve.

But… you are not of the Hive hierarchy…you possess no worm nor a need for one… so I suppose your tribute is yours to do with as you please… and it is gloriously rich and nourishing, do you not covet this much, Oryx my friend?

"It sounds like it came from over here…"

Harley groggily groaned…

"Oh, you've fallen down haven't you?"

Her head felt heavy, but somehow better than it had been for a long time for some reason…

"Are you okay?"

She remembered everything that had happened… part of her wanted to scream about it, yet another knew she was just as responsible for all that had happened and how she had chosen to do things initially cumulating in this…

"Here, get up…"

She checked… her hand cannon was still holstered on her back, and she still seemed to be in this unknown place… probably by the Vex… and in control of the kid…

"Chara, huh? That's a nice name."

Was she dealing with post fall sleep paralysis like the kid? Did kids get that? She started to thrash around…

"My name is…"

Harley's eyes snapped open… well, the kid's did… there was the sound of running water… She realized something else was missing…

[Harley]:Ghost? Ghost?! Ghost!

[H Ghost]: I never thought I'd be happier to hear you channel that imitation…

[Harley]: I wasn't imitating anything… I was really afraid… you were gone and that I was… did…

[H Ghost]: We don't know how much time we have to talk while you're… saner than you were over the last few days…

[Harley]: I know, I screwed up real bad…

[H Ghost]: If anything goes to be said, their attempts to kill you are sadly very understandable from their point of view now…

She got up and started to walk the kid through the area… she found another sparkle and interfaced with it… the kid's body seemed to ache less… She continued on past the piles of garbage…

[Harley]: Well… it really is kill or be killed now… maybe the flower fibbed us?

[H Ghost]: It has been helping us though… maybe we could try… keeping killing to necessary?

There was a sudden splash which she turned around to check… and something new was now blocking her way… it was orange and looked rather cross… and a little comical.

Dummy: Hahaha… it's just like you to run away. I am a ghost that lives inside a dummy. My cousin used to live inside a dummy too. Until… You came along!

Harley: Ugh…

[H Ghost]: Actions, reactions, consequences…

[Harley]: Don't remind me about that… it'll make me think of other things and then…

Dummy: Not only did your actions cause them to leave their home…

[H Ghost]: To be fair there's no way Toriel would have known something was in there or… that we could have either…

[Harley]: Ghost… quiet…

Dummy: But now all their neighbors are gone too! Despicable. Despicable! Despicable! You're the worst person I've ever met!

Harley: Guh…

The gun on her back felt heavier… as if… calling her to reach for it… to avenge the insult? To… just remove what was in the way of the goal… to make… her way… prevail over others… such was the way of the universe…

Dummy: I've never been more mad!

[H Ghost]: Harley?

[Harley]: Is… is this what Eris…

Dummy: Guoooooohhh! My mannequin levels are going off the charts!

There was a sudden flash and the dummy which had seemed to be glowing bright red with outrage suddenly turned back to it's orange self… but something was different…

Harley:…?

Dummy:…? This… This feeling…? Eureka. Eureka! Eureka! Human. That moment of unbridled emotion. It allowed me to finally fuse with my body! I'm fully corporeal now! My lifelong dream, realized!

[H Ghost]: Well, that's nice, he seems happy… maybe helping people with their problems is the way to go around here…

Dummy: In return, I guess I won't stomp you. How's that sound?

The left and right eyes of Harley's mask of the third man took on a crimson tinge from the usual green…

Harley: You know… I found you a little annoying and cute… but… for somebody with so little true power… very poor choice of words.

[H Ghost]: Oh no…


	10. Rises

**Rises**

But my sisters are still tearing up the road so I don't know how to get back.

Undyne didn't know how long it had been… but the area around her home was deathly quiet… and her spare phone was not charged… so she had been waiting for it to get enough power to activate… and she hated it… the silence was probably due to the successful evacuation… but she couldn't wait to break news that the threat had been vanquished… as soon as her phone had enough charge she would give Alphys a call and resolve everything…

Her home phone started ringing…

Undyne: Hello? Undyne here.

Gerson: Wa ha ha ha, it's good to hear you on the other end, I feared the threat I issued to the human was empty…

Undyne: Human? It… can't be… I sent it tumbling off the second plank road…

Gerson: Can't it now? Hold your sass lass, because I have quite the photo of my last customer to send you here, seems you didn't finish the job!

Undyne: Your shop?! Gerson, I'm on my way, are you…

Gerson: Alright dear… I know much even though I'm too old to fight… but words can buy precious seconds for those who need to flee…

Undyne: Thank goodness… I'll get back out there…

Gerson: Be careful Undyne… I… saw something terrible in this human… that no other on the surface I can remember on my better days… no other human was like that… Even worse… I saw fear and confusion at some points… I don't fully understand what's going on here myself…

Undyne: What are you saying?

Gerson: I'm saying… when you beat this human… a very young human at that… I can't tell you what will happen… I just feel there's… something using this… poor human for terrible evil…

Undyne: But If I don't stop…

Gerson: Hold your sass again, lass… like I said, I know you have to stop the human… and I know you will… what I want to say is… if things were a little different… I'd be interested in helping or solving what's wrong with that human child… so just… hold your conviction when you win, because this time… there really is no other way nor the time for it…

Undyne wanted to call Gerson back the moment he hung up, but her cellphone had finished charging and vibrated loudly on the table… a tally of missed calls and a message from Alphys… she skimmed just one, lines about the human surviving the fight after a fall to the garbage dump… missing monsters… she grabbed her spear and sprinted out again, it was time for another chase with the most dangerous prey of all.

Using knowledge of the place and the fact that the human had been at Gerson's shop barely minutes ago, Undyne chased the human child down again… and even cornered her target once more… this time near a dead end with only an Echo flower…

Undyne: Seven. Seven human souls. With the power of seven human souls, our king… King Asgore Dreemurr… will become a god. With that power, Asgore can finally shatter the barrier. He will finally take the surface back from humanity and give them back the suffering and pain that we have endured.

Harley: I've been part of teams that have slain gods before… what's one more?

Undyne wondered if there was truth in that statement… or it was a bluff… either way the human did show extensive martial knowledge and at least some command over a certain power in combat… Still, there was a casual truthful arrogance to the line she had heard before… from herself even.

Undyne: Understand human? This is your only chance at redemption. Give up your soul, or I'll tear it from your body.

She braced and formed her spear preparing to charge… that simple contented looking but arrogant smile and smirk the human flashed her really made her blood boil… as did the fact that the weapon of choice for her opponent seemed to merely be a toy knife still… her first step was actually nervous and hesitant… She felt something… she charged… Gerson made some sense in his cryptic waffle…

Monster kid: Undyne! I'll help you fight!

She barely managed to avert her charge and break off the attack… even the human seemed surprised… An awkward silence filled the air which the monster kid still did not catch onto after coming out of the bushes and nearly making her commit involuntary manslaughter.

Monster kid: Yo! You did it! Undyne is right in front of you! You've got front row seats to her fight! Wait… who's she fighting?

Undyne cancelled the spear and seized the monster kid by the ear, then dragged the ignorant brat away… this was exasperating…

Monster kid: H-Hey… You aren't gonna tell my parents about this, are you?

She reckoned the kid was safe enough, though she knew there wasn't much before the human would reach the Hotlands lab where Alphys was, and that she had to chase her prey down again…

Undyne: Listen up, go home now. I don't have time and don't want to repeat myself on this to you, ever again. I don't have time to tell your parents, I don't have time to keep bringing you away from that… human… who is very dangerous and has… hurt a lot… A LOT! Of people…

She took another deep breath having said all that in one go… Papyrus might have been useful in the Royal Guard for this situation… she felt a tear trickle down her eye now that she realized that she was partly responsible for the culmination of events that transpired including Papyrus death… bad tactics letting the human into waterfall, her failure to end the chase now that they were so precariously close to Hotland… not properly teaching Papyrus about combat or inducting him formally into the Royal Guard although he was long qualified despite him being… too nice… she rejected somebody from their dream because they were too nice…

Undyne: …Including some very close friends of mine…

She realized the monster kid was gone and cursed herself again for taking that moment to sob, she should have gotten the river person to take monster kid somewhere else and not wasted time on that speech… she sprinted back to where she had been about to battle the human… and onwards… past a field of echo flowers… she heard monster kid's voice echoing down from the bridge in front… the foolish brat's life was in mortal peril again, she quickened her pace…

Monster kid: Y-you'd b-better st-stop r-right where you are…

Her mind clicked into place, she was running so fast that something about the armor seemed to sense the need and urgency of the situation, her boots were no longer giving off that loud clanking despite her sprint…

Monster kid: Cause if you w-wanna hurt anyone else… you're…

She saw them… the human had an expression she had never seen before in all the years of her job… She started forcing herself to run even faster… she would not fail anyone anymore… not even this overly zealous and foolish fan of hers…

Monster kid: You're gonna have to get through me first.

Harley: I'm on your schedule…

She saw the human's knees bend…

Monster kid: and… a… and…

Undyne lunged in such a way as to land between the monster kid and the humanoid abomination she had been chasing… there was a sharp pain from her chest to her torso… she couldn't feel anything below… though due to the armor, she was still in a standing position…

Monster kid: Undyne: You're… you're… hurt…

Undyne: Hurt? It's nothing. Next time, listen when I tell you to leave, okay?

It hurt a lot to say that... the pain was all over her body… the part of it that could feel… she actually had been bisected… she knew she was dead… her body just didn't know yet…

Monster kid: Undyne I…

Undyne: I'll take care of this! Get out of here!

She refused to show any sign of pain until the sound of sprinting feet stopped echoing from behind her… The human smiled… she didn't quite understand how those eyes that were previously thin slits that almost seemed closed and expressionless could now portray such a satisfied grin with eyes glowing red…

Undyne: …heh… "it's nothing" … No… s-somehow… with just one hit… I'm already… Already…

The human turned around to leave… the lower part of her body was… turning to dust… she winced as her still feeling torso hit the bridge… she had indeed been bisected… she watched her legs continue to crumble away…

Undyne: D… damn it…. Papyrus… Alphys… Asgore… Just like that I… I've failed you…

She realized she wasn't feeling the pain anymore… soon she would be seeing Papyrus again… she could apologize and… that wouldn't be right… even if Papyrus wouldn't want revenge… there was a very big problem right here, right now… one that she couldn't leave unsolved… she realized death's sweet release could wait… she would have to make it wait… She was starting to feel the pain again… but that was good… pain meant she was still in the land of the living…

Undyne: No… my body… It feels like it's splitting apart. Like any instant I'll scatter into a million pieces.

Gerson was right… she wasn't really dealing with a human… it was something that used a human as it's puppet… she didn't fully understand… but the blow she had taken… she felt something horrifying. Horrifying to know that something like this with such evil intent even existed… and she was angry that it was having fun after all the lives it had ruined and taken.

Undyne: But… Deep, deep in my soul. There's a burning feeling I can't describe. A burning feeling that won't let me die…

With that anger… there was a strange understanding… she didn't know where it came from… but she knew it wasn't entirely hers… the wind seemed to howl… as the dust from her body that had begun to disperse slowly through some unknown benevolent force… reinforcing her will, began to come back in streams of mist… The child stopped for a moment, intrigued by the particle stream flowing back to what was supposed to be a pile of corpse dust for the wind to scatter.

Undyne: A burning feeling that won't let me die… This isn't just about monsters anymore, is it? If you get past me you'll… You'll destroy them all, won't you? Monsters. Humans. Everyone.

More understanding came in tandem with her anger… this understanding… this defiance of death… her will was causing her to get help from somewhere? That didn't matter… Something horribly evil was in front of her right here, and right now… and it had failed to kill her… but that blade stroke… she knew what intent and logic lay behind it… and the sick desire to derive more pleasure from causing harm…

Undyne: Everyone's hopes. Everyone's dreams. Vanquished in an instant. But I won't let you do that. Right now everyone in the world… I can feel their hearts beating as one.

She felt her eyepatch blow away in the wind… she didn't care… somehow that bad eye could see again… even better, good to have depth perception back for combat…What was this feeling and power? That she could know and feel so much going on the surface… was Papyrus stirring help for her from the beyond?

Undyne: And we all have one goal. To defeat you.

There was something before her that enjoyed the suffering of others and thought it was right… Gerson's wisdom made it's point… this wasn't evil a fearful human would commit, this was something that caused suffering because it found it fun and thought it was right… and she knew… where was this power and understanding coming from? It didn't matter,if the whole world had somehow decided to go and pray for her… that was probably it… right now… she was the one chosen to deal with this threat to existence… because here was something that thought might made right… had fun destroying those that didn't agree, and just wanted to kill more to prove it's point more… but if it was might that mattered… Undyne stood back up, grasping her spear… the last of her dust returning to her body and fully reforming it. She was the only one here who could stop the threat here and now… that suited her just fine.

Undyne: Human. No, whatever you are. For the sake of the whole world…

She smiled, confident of winning… Since might was all that mattered to something like this… she would prove she was stronger and it would die, knowing how wrong it had been, how vile and twisted… while it's sick views crumbled around it because by its own rules… you must win, or not at all.

Undyne: I, Undyne, will strike you down!

She felt the power within her growing… and the light… that glorious light… the desire to do good... help others… it had such power… and here it was… hers to use in battle…. Even her own eyes were blinded as she felt her body and armor transform from it… when the flash dissipated… the human was shielding it's eyes… yet the face was different again… expressionless…

Undyne: You're gonna have to try a little harder than that.

Undyne gestured at where she had been slashed previously… there was no wound anymore… it was time to fight…

Harley: Ugh… I feel like I just finished purifying that gun again… it's great but… didn't I just… oh right…

She looked through the eyes of the child and beheld the reformed Undyne… whose armor had changed and her bad left eye, formerly bad left eye at that… now sparkled… in a familiar way she had seen before… in the best of guardians at their best… she blinked as a barrage of spear projectiles homed in on her from Undyne firing them out by thrusting her magic spear. The heart motif was a little tacky and yet… it was cooler than Chroma heat sinks applied to armor…

If she had been pulling a Dredgen Yor… perhaps here was her Shin Malphur… She got behind Undyne and lunged with a blink strike. Undyne's armored was somehow much harder… she cut a small weft into the armor, but the blade glanced off after that… Undyne smiled at her after taking the hit and retaliated with a swing of the spear… Harley back pedaled… but a weft of the green energy caught her…

Undyne: Face me!

Undyne twirled her spear and began to approach with a barrage of strikes… Harley tried to blink but found she couldn't as the green energy clung to her… so she stepped backwards, using her high agility to evade the barrage of stabs… Undyne threw several feint blows where the actual strike was with the blunt end of the spear… she only got hit once… and found herself scarfing a Unisicle left over from something she took from a shop back in Snowdin…

She took her shot after predicting a blow from Undyne… the fish woman offered a confident sneer in return… though Harley was sure she did do some damage… though she took a scuff from Undyne… AND blinked backwards…

Undyne: Where's your malice human? That disrespect for all things life aspires to… I can't feel it anymore…

In fact, Undyne spared a thought to contemplate her opponents face changing again, now that expressionless mask once more… almost like it had been glued over the previous face that cut her in half before… Silence… it didn't matter, she knew she had to win this fight, and be prepared for whatever outcome came when she defeated this human. Undyne roared and raised her spear… there was new power and avenues for her to channel her abilities and skill… she summoned spears to surround her opponent and impale… staggering their flight towards Harley as well…

Harley sprinted… she blinked… that was one cluster avoided, but another bore down… she slid… then jumped and went for another blink… the spear attacks were wearing down… Harley remained crouched as Undyne prepared to attack again… but Undyne found no one to attack… just that familiar electric wispy noise.

Undyne: Oh… very good… this is more like you… sneaking about in fear of something that can actually fight back… oh I know your kind… right about now… you'll just…

Undyne started twirling her spear in fierce cycles around her until it seemed like a series of buzz saws made of light spun around her…

Undyne: Sneak up from behind!

Harley found herself on the defensive despite having been on a prime position to strike… had her opponent somehow become a guardian? This wasn't conforming to any ways of light usage she knew… but light was very recognizable all the same… and Undyne was overflowing with it… almost as if she were a Warlock channeling radiance… more even… even while invisible she had to duck and weave left and right between the strikes… she could also see Undyne's armor and wounds slowly mend… Undyne was a being touched by the light now… somehow… someway… different from a guardian… no… no different… guardians protected their people… humans… she was protecting monsters… Harley struck when Undyne stopped… scoring a hit. Undyne smiled and struck back… Harley evaded the spear, but the green energy wave caught her and she found her ability to make the child blink suppressed again.

Harley: You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain…

Undyne: What the hell are you saying?! Nevermind the war where we were sealed beneath the earth when you all won, you came here and started killing everyone!

Harley:… and what is your justification? I heard your kind took 6 souls… what makes all of you people better than me then!

Undyne: You don't even know what you have become do you…

Harley found herself running with slides and jumps mixed in to evade the spears… she ordered her ghost to switch for better control… if she couldn't blink at least double jump wasn't stopped… so she could still have some maneuverability.

Harley: I think… maybe I do…

Undyne: Then if you do know, give up! Stop fighting me, if not for this leftover part of yourself then for the humans, your people out there!

Harley: That's the problem… you kill this body, you don't actually get… the one who did those awful things… you just kill an innocent human child…

Undyne: Take some responsibility and stop pretending you didn't do all those things! What are you? Split personality disorder?

Undyne watched as her opponent stopped… they both breathed heavily as the wind howled in the chasm they fought above although there was no way for it to blow in here… she prepared to charge again… noting a curious change that seemed to happen to the child's toy knife… it was growing in length… changing somehow… most of the blade resembled what she knew of human historical videos Alphys showed her… but the connection between the blade and hilt… she could feel it… that jagged rock or metal chunk was something strong… but conflicted… confused… like her opponent?

The child was short enough that Harley was sure her blade scavenged from Oryx was longer than the kid was tall, but what mattered now was the kid had enough strength to wield it comfortably…

Harley: Yes… I take responsibility for everything that happened since I fell in here… and into the kid… and whatever else comes before and after… but I'll see the kid home no matter what… and since you are going to kill the kid to try to kill me… forget it… we're long past talking… let's just…

Undyne: Good, at least on this we agree…

And there, Undyne heard the sound of a bladedancer losing themselves to the Arc power. She held formed a second spear and began to prepare her defense… the blue glowing body of the child leapt, and took another jump using forces unknown to Undyne in the air… and that's it, there was no more gap between them both… Undyne parried as best she could… but she was slowly losing the advantage and hardly keeping up with the bladework the human child was putting out… she knew it would happen before she felt it… the child leap effortlessly and was much harder to hit due to that smaller physical size… even holding the sword in reverse grip…

Undyne: Hergh!

She felt it… she had been cut badly with a slash at her leg… and this time the power within her wasn't quite able to mend it… she knew there was something in that blade… Undyne gritted her teeth and instead of focusing on parrying she started calling magic spears to strike her opponent while doing her best to win the fencing contest… She saw one strike the human… who bled a little, but continued to attack as if no such injury had occurred… it was a battle of skill and wills… she would not lose this… and yet somehow which each new injury she took… her grasp and the sustenance she drew from this new power of hers… it was becoming weaker… yet her relentless opponent showed no sign of weakening despite the hits she scored…

Undyne: Why… why…. Why?!

Undyne focused on her feelings and what made her fight this battle to try to renew her defense and assault… but the magic spears would not come…and her feelings… that power… had it all been a shallow hollowed façade? The sword was no longer a sword held by the human either… it was just a toy knife again…

Undyne: Damn it…. So even that power… it wasn't enough…?

Harley: I'm… more experienced with it than you… you did well though.

Undyne: Heh… heheheh… If you… If you think I'm gonna give up hope, you're wrong.

Harley: You shouldn't… I once took part in killing something named hope eater… at least… that's what I remember of it…

Undyne: 'Cause I've got my friends behind me. Alphys told me she would watch me fight you… And if anything went wrong, she would… evacuate everyone.

Harley: Fine by me… I'm tired of being attacked by everything here…

Undyne: By now she's called Asgore and told him to absorb the 6 human souls.

Harley: You… you're…

There was something pooling at Undyne's feet… it seemed to flow from inside her armor… no, the armor itself looked like the wax of a lit candle now… the puddle was forming faster…

Undyne: And with that power… this world will live on…!

The fish woman flashed her last biggest smile… she had done her best and tasted something grand and new… perhaps this power would be better used by Asgore… Undyne didn't think anymore after that. The wind ceased to blow… as part of Undyne was blown away into dust… Harley looked at the puddle left in front of her…

[H Ghost]: Oh dear… that's not a nice way to go…

Harley stepped through the puddle, she had to act quickly while her mind was itself again… maybe bring the child to somewhere… and beat her way out of this vex dimension she was locked in to control the kid from…

[H Ghost]: And you just stepped on a dead body…

Harley: It's what Golgoroth used to eat anyway…


	11. Genocide City Zone Act 1

**Genocide City Zone Act I**

"Oryx my king and friend… I have news for you… it seems you would lose your sword sometime… no I cannot tell when, I do not know if it is a mere defeat or your demise… but I do know this, the sky is trying pervert your sword logic… isn't this interesting?"

[H Ghost]: Sushi girl back there surged with… light… that the light would even… well up against us in such massive quantities… please tell me you think you know we might be doing something very wrong… have done… very wrong things.

[Harley]: Too late now… for such things and me… we'll just get the kid back home… then we'll worry about… ourselves… or maybe I should go hop off a cliff… you go… find another guardian to work with…

[H Ghost]: Don't give up on yourself yet… I know you're really still you… despite…

[Harley]:Gggh…

[H Ghost]: It's not just you… something's really wrong… like the time and space around us feels… not hostile… but… malevolent… if I had little hairs on my skin like you… they'd stand.

[Harley]: Ill will… It's like being in a Hive base… or Vex place… but somehow you don't have their… Hivey or Vexy feelings… you really just know something… is wrong… even the Sol edge… it feels… when I put that heavy ammo synth into it… it's like… not mine anymore… what was Oryx's sword called?

She chanced upon a water cooler but instead of taking a cup to drink, slashed open the plastic container, letting it spill all over the kid and lapping up whatever did flow into the kids mouth… the water was very warm, though given they had just entered Hotland… this was no surprise.

[H Ghost]: Into the lab in front of us?

[Harley]: Yeah, the kid's gonna be roast if we keep standing above this lava… ghost…

[H Ghost]: Yes?

[Harley]: I can feel things… going wrong after that surge of light earlier… it's now wearing off… I… I'm afraid… we're a long way from the tower… both in time and space…

[H Ghost]: Just try to hold on… there's little we can do now but stay this course… anybody who could have helped us probably won't now…

Harley: And… she wasn't wrong, I'm a long way from home, surrounded by things I've turned into enemies… and my friends… where are they now? When?

There had been a force field blocking her from proceeding to what looked like an elevator… so she had little choice but to try the lab door… which opened to her, surprising… with all that had been said and done, she certainly would have deserved to be locked out… she noticed one monitor that was trained on her.. and walked on… past a pc with illegible scribbled post its all over, a fridge… and to a rectangular robot, that looked far more primitive than the city's frames… it was holding a mic for some reason… and in front of a rather unexplainable hole in the wall.

Mettaton: Oh there you are. You ugly little creature. You've made quite a name for yourself.

Harley:… Yeah. I'm not proud of it.

Mock applause… Harley began to feel a wish to attack this machine in front of her.

Mettaton Such infamy…! I'm impressed. Oh yes. If you're looking for Alphys, she's not here. While you were busy doing your, ahem, thing… she was running around evacuating people to safety. Now they're in a place where you'll never get them.

Harley: Good…

Mettaton: Deciding not to fight you. My my, she really is the only smart one, isn't she?

Harley felt the child step forward… she didn't entirely disagree… sure, they only had a flimsy toy in their hands… and the robot was certainly made of metal… but yet…

Mettaton: Oh, how sassy. You're just itching to get your hands on me, aren't you? Well, toooo baaad. This world needs stars more than it needs corpses! Toodles.

Mettaton fled with speed one could not imagine a single wheel could accelerate to, let alone so fast.

[H Ghost]: If I ever get the chance, that might be a nice Chasis…

Harley:… still hung up over the Fallen Sabre huh?

[H Ghost]: When the news broke, we ghosts have been sharing scans of it… don't we deserve better than a mere Shank since we are capable of doing so much more?

Harley: Well, maybe you can have it when I'm done with its occupant… and use it to… stay far away from the… *sigh* abomination your guardian is becoming…

She pulled the handcannon off her back…

Harley: … The devourer wants… to eat…

[H Ghost]: I thought we tamed that thing! Are you…

Harley: Thought… but I suppose… we didn't… and no, I'm not… may never be again… I… want to… kill…

Harley's ghost had been with her as a guardian since resurrection… before the FWC experiment, Harley was a mostly silent, determined guardian that was strong, swift and brave… the newest always were… then came that FWC experiment with her past life memories from the accursed Vex devices and Clovis Bray machines… found near where she was raised back to life as a guardian… it was often exasperating to be with her thereafter as she became kooky, unfocused… but yet somehow still competent and often succeeding because of obeying instructions issued by others with more situational awareness… with occasional bouts of silence resembling the first few months after resurrection… however she rarely undertook a solo operation since then… right now… the guardian she was attached to reminded her far more of the former state… but as she melded back into Harley and kept silent… she prayed to the traveler for the latter to return… and something to help with the bastardization happening to her beloved guardian.

Encountering the royal guard… didn't end well, they weren't anywhere close to Undyne in ability… there was a playful sadism in that fight… it wasn't a fight… it was like a cat, playing with the mouse that had long since lost hope of escaping… A futile struggle waged by valiant subordinates to avenge their captain… who was already defeated despite being a far superior combatant.

Muffet was probably the biggest fool… having had a readymade escape route and instead electing to take part in direct physical combat… one rose left where she turned to dust, which Harley stomped and twisted her foot on… Ghost actually somewhat found some poetic karma in her demise, Muffet's mistake was one of contempt, arrogance and ignorance… fitting in a post mortem way…

That didn't change that the child's blue and purple striped shirt was now tinged a very morbid grey… dust of the dead that it seemed nothing could ever hope to wash off.


	12. Neo Genocide City Zone Act 2

**Neo Genocide City Zone Act II**

"To rend one's enemies is to see them not as equals, but objects – hollow of spirit and meaning."

-13th Understanding, 7th Book of Sorrow

It was a stolen antique gun… but it belted out the hand cannon's atypical projectiles easily and efficiently, as if the child was holding the Thorn instead of something meant for cowboy role-plays… It made feeding the gun easier too, for sure.

Thorn had made Harley a dreaded opponent in the crucible ever since she fought into the Hive nest to reclaim it and after a series of tests and events… it was called purified for good by the Speaker and ready for use… Harley's ghost was forced to witness… what her guardian did as they progressed from the labs into the city proper was unbearable to watch… and the hand cannon glowed an ever brighter green as Harley continued to fire rounds out from the portal that was the weapon's barrel, and into the real world through a mere outdated pistol found that the child now wielded… almost delightfully…

Yet, while being with Harley while she performed such things was unspeakable… somehow for some reason… being outside in the Vex dimension, if it was a Vex dimension at all anymore… had somehow become even worse… as if the evil committed using the child's body was corrupting it… she'd tell her guardian to drop the gun, destroy it even… but then guardians who wielded and made such weapons touched by the darkness… often became superstitious about their tools of destruction… right now the guardian she was paired with had become one such… and it always ended poorly… the most blatant one being Dredgen Yor… the original owner of this hand cannon… no, it was a curse… residing in the shape of a weapon… Perhaps infusing it with light wasn't enough…

As her guardian continued through a resort, she wished she had downloaded Toland's journal when Jing and Karina's ghosts made them available for reading… but had refrained from doing so… out of fear for the mental state of her guardian… a fear now very real…

There was a bleakness to the place, which even the burger shopkeeper noticed… the silence… the lack of anybody alive… almost as if the world had given up trying to correct the wrongness welling in Harley… having your face and hands covered in dust here… was like the equivalent of human blood dripping from your hands in the city… or Guardian light… the burger shopkeeper was fearful for his life the whole way, and didn't even try to bank it in the cash register when paid… money from the death of innocents…

After one elevator ride… they were about to reach the way to the palace… Mettaton was here… and despite his bulky metal frame… Ghost knew there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell the machine could win… just like all the confused remaining citizens who were downed in a simple, single blade stroke… for failing to hide or evacuate.

Mettaton: My My. So you've finally arrived.

Harley: I suppose thanks for waiting up are in order?

Mettaton: After our first meeting, I realized… something ghastly. You're not just a threat to monsters… but humanity as well.

Harley: Oh, now that's absurd… I'm just interested in going home.

Mettaton: Oh my, that's an issue. You see, I can't be a star without an audience… and besides, there are some people… I want to protect…

The child's body moved forward a few steps, although Harley didn't initiate that she welcomed it all the same… better to get this talking waste of time over and done with.

Mettaton: Ha ha ha. Eager as always eh? But don't touch that dial, there's something you haven't accounted for… As any true fan would know, I was first created as a human eradication robot…

Harley: I'm totally quaking in my boots here.

Mettaton: It was only after becoming a star that I was given a more photogenic body. However, those original functions have never been fully removed. Come any closer and I'll be forced to show you… My true form.

Harley: You waste time… time I need to solve… something.

She unhesitantly stepped forward, though she wasn't the only one willing that…

Mettaton: Fine then! Rrready? Iiiiit's showtime!

The stage lights in the area clicked on… blindling and dazzling the child for a moment… When the bulbs blew out… Mettaon had taken a more humanoid form… though there was a clear function before form look once more could be seen than his silhouette… his large shoulder armor even seemed to be identical to the components used for his current legs… though… whether this apparent quality was something that could match the last city's produce in more than aesthetics was something that remained to be seen… the star crossed eye and hair were impressive though… and the heart motif Undyne took on earlier was strongly present.

Harley: I hope your bite is worse than your bark, because it's been pretty boring on the way up here… they were so hard to find and yet there was no fun killing them…

[Alphys]: M-Mettaton! How're you feeling?

[Mettaton]: Excellent, and looking fabulous!

Mettaton evaded a slash attack with the toy knife and in the moment Harley wasn't looking threw a hologram of himself down where he was and used his newly added components to silently propel himself away as Harley sliced into the hologram and was surprised by cutting nothing.

[Alphys]: A lot of the things added or modified have had m-minimum testing, but it should hold together... Remember, it's all based on what I could get from… f-from Undyne's new powers… I don't understand it… but it's like… something… I… I worked with before… just much stronger and… not… as dangerous to us… er… the user!

Mettaton fired more hologram bursts out… he wanted to observe his opponent… find a weakness or opening to attack… eventually he lined up a shot when Harley was slashing a hologram… it was time to test the power borrowed from Undyne in his arm cannon.

[Mettaton]: Trust me and your handiwork Alphys darling! I may not have her raw skill and power, but that's what you are here to make up for!

[Alpys]: We'll bury those new parts after this… It's all I could get of Undyne… a…after she…

The child's body took the hit… but apart from some singeing to the hair and shirt… there was barely a bruise on the visible skin… in anything there was an expression glaring at him now that suggested annoyance and intense anger.

[Mettaton]: Alphys, there's too much EXP and LOVE in the human…

[Alphys]: D-deploying minimetts!

The vents popped open and miniature Mettatons, in all their rectangular, umbrella holding glory filed out in large numbers… and starting bombing with rapidly repurposed explosives… some even clicked onto Harley's to lock joints and slow movement with sheer weight… a sacrificial tactic… it was working…

Harley: Get off me you little! Ughn!

A bomb scored a direct hit… flooring the child's body… setting up for another hit… and another… Harley managed to shirk the one on her weapon arm and swiftly cleared the rest… taking another hit in the process… she limped badly, one ankle was broken in all the bombing… she fished out a sandwich purchased earlier and wolfed it down in a few gulps…

[Alphys]: M-Minimett wave one is reloading! Sending wave two! Mettaton! Look out!

Harley blinked forward and performed a blink strike… but found herself suspended for a brief moment… if she had her proper body instead of using this child's form her hunter's dagger would be in the machine's eye socket by now…

[Mettaton]: Amazing what you did with these features Alphys! You went all out…

[Alphys]:R-really? Thanks! I made it a variable shield that changes based on what you need… it can take hits and act as a forcefie…

[Mettaton]: Hush now darling, I'm going to make a show to remember…

Mettaton: Oh darling… did you think I would just drop dead to that…

Harley: Unggh…

Mettaton took the time to reach out with his left hand and stroke the cheek of the child, which was rosy…

[Alphys]: Mettaton, don't waste t-time… the systems need time to generate more reserves from Undyne's power.

Mettaton: Such a lovely face… hiding a demon inside… I'll credit you for being such an inspiration!

Mettaton's right arm melded into the boot shoulder above it and projected out a long purple blade resembling Undyne's spear…he made an exaggerated motion and aimed to stab… he scored a clean impale through the child's body.

Harley: Argh!

But the child bled a little… and yet that face… it was a smile and a sneer… Mettaton realized he thought himself victorious too soon… Harley slashed the energy blade going through the kid's torso, the toy knife cutting clean through the energy and freeing her… Mettaton gasped in shock as despite the grievous wound the child lunged at him again… he was going to take the blow for sure…

[Alphys]: Fly! N-now!

A cluster of Minimetts had taken the impact of the slash while his HUD warned him that the energy he had for attacks and shields was now depleted but recharging… Undyne's remains had unlimited power but Alphy's systems weren't perfect for bringing it out at speed. He disconnected his arm and used his shoulder and boot jets to fly out of reach as the bombs rained down and minimetts attempted to mob the human again. Mettaton prepared his arm cannon once more, matching the rate of charge, he started firing low powered high intensity shots from his arm cannon to join in the bombardment… the human scarfed an MTT steak down below…

Mettaton: At least you're enjoying my products dear, ooo-lah-lah…

There was a familiar electric buzz heard that Alphys dreaded…

[Alphys]: W-Watch out! It's up to something!

The next minimett wave arrived and began to dive bomb… Mettaton slowed his fire rate for a more powerful charge in each shot… the minimett's below were obliterated in a twirl of the blade that splashed Arc energy all over them…

Mettaton: I really should have fired that idiot! Selling you that was a mistake… darling is he at least dead by your hands?

Harley jumped and used the dive bombing minimetts as temporary footholds while slashing them with the Arc blade to build altitude…

Harley: You know, just to spite you more… when I'm done with you, he'll get to live…

Alphys screamed as Mettaton suddenly realized Harley was in striking distance… his shots were also less effective despite connecting… Harley added the double jump she had been keeping and prepared to swing the toy knife into Mettaton's robotic neck.

[Alphys]: Move!

Mettaton attempted to propel himself backwards… but the arc blade caught his left shoulder… which wasn't attached anymore… it dissipated into Arc particles… however losing one of his main propulsion systems, he was no longer able to fly… and had to stagger his landing with intermittent boosts…

[Mettaton]: Alphys did you…

[Alphys]: I… I've seen what h-happens when people get struck by that… I ejected it for you…

[Mettaton]: Thanks Alphys… we make a great team together darling…

[Alphys]: Y… Yes! We do! Let's stop the human together! Replacement flight shoulder leg on the way! Be careful! I don't have time to make anymore and help you fight!

Harley lunged again, now no longer sparking with Arc blade… Mettaton responded with a shotgun type blast and knocked her a good distance away again…

[Alphys]: We have a problem! Our supplies are running out! I'm putting something that will give more force to the bombs, also w-we can't waste anymore Minimetts trying to slow the human's movement!

Mettaton took the air once again the instant his replacement shoulder arrived and clicked into place… then he noticed something… the human's left hand was glowing with some energy construct…

Harley: I don't know why I forgot to try this all the while…

Mettaton swallowed a lump in his throat… a lump created by the simple sight of open glowing red eyes winking at him with playful sadism.

Harley: …but now that I remember I can do it, so can the kid!

Guardians called it a skip grenade, a sort of cluster bomb bladedancers would throw that split into homing Arc projectiles after striking a surface… Mettaton gasped as he jet himself away and saw the projectiles curl around and continue to chase him relentlessly, he took to flying once he hit enough speed equal to the Arc mini-missles that emitted a mix of hissing and clicking as they chased him.

[Alphys]: She could never do that before! Hang on… I got something special planned… w-we'll get her together!

Harley: This has been fun, you really are quite the entertainer… I'm enjoying myself a lot…

Mettaton: Is this all a game to you!? The lives you've ended and destroyed!?

Harley: Yes, but that's beside the point now… show me your best before I close this out…

Chara: This playtime needs to be over, it's boring.

[Alphys]: Sending all the Minimetts! And your extra sharp jets!

Mettaton: Lights!

The initial stage lights that were blown out were nothing compared to the dance floors, Harley was blinded instantly…

Mettaton: Camera!

The command wasn't exactly for a camera though, the lasers that were used in the area had also been brought into this room… they fired swathes and scorched the dance floor with their orange and blue sweeps… Harley screamed… the wounds weren't deep… but being burned was a horrible sensation all the same…

[Alphys]&Mettaton: Action!

The Minimetts arrived and dropped their payload… the explosions knocking a bruised Harley into the sky with the lasers casting more singes and burns all over the child's body… Mettaton watched as two of his shoulder flight units (that had been in fact modified from his jet boots) worked in sync with the explosions that kept their opponent aloft and blinded, as well as the laser beams… a vicious series of kicks by bladed heels… both ended the assault as the child was thrown airbourne for the final time… and the heels viciously impaled the child in the back… and boosted full power down to the ground… the lasers whined around the dance floor which was overheated… and the floor was darkened from the light below blowing out… a thick cloud of smoke filled the air with the scent of ozone and gunpowder…

[Alphys]: We… we did it! Undyne… I… we…

Mettaton used his new eye's system and searched the smoke cloud with x ray… he spotted some movement from the impaled human and pointed his arm cannon there, changing the other hand into an arm cannon and lining a shot up as well…

[Mettaton]: Not yet Alphys darling…

Mettaton: I once saw a human movie with something that… you oddly remind me off… it was hard to stop… here's a line from that… Hasta La Vistah, Baby.

A pair of beams blazed forth from Mettaton's arm cannons, merging together into a cylindrical assault that had a diameter as long as his current form was tall… the energy stormed over the human's body…. The room was awash in bright purple light cast off from the energy… if one were there, holding their eyelids shut, even when not standing in the attack that Mettaton sunk all his standing attack energy into… one would only see purple… Mettaton sank onto his knees and sighed… he didn't need to care that the HUD was warning him about the temporary energy depletion…

Chara: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…

Mettaton: No…

[Alphys]: Oh please… it can't be… it's mustn't… oh no…

The room's walls were demolished in the battle, leaving them exposed to the core… the floor was also rough and full of craters… Mettaton watched in disbelief as a silhouette rose where his jet boots had impaled the human… the dust, smoke and purple aftermath slowly clearing… the human's shirt was totally burned away at the back… and they bled from where two high heels still clearly showed through the front… but they were still getting up, with that red eyed smile and rosy cheeks… despite a trickle of blood rolling from the corner of the mouth…

Harley: I told you playtime's over…

The human threw the toy knife aside and pulled out a gun… Alphys sent the minimetts swarming, but they were shot down easily… she stood at the control panel from her secret lab in shock as they were taken down… there was a certain finality to what was happening, one shot, one kill… she shed tears in frustration… there were no more armaments or equipment she could send to Mettaton…

Mettaton put up his energy shielding… the human continued to walk forward… firing… he watched as the energy reserves dwindled… until he purple aura surrounding and protecting him failed… that when he realized the jagged barbs at his feet…

Harley: Take a good look at it… this is my pride and joy, what I worked the hardest to earn and get… and boy was it worth it…

Mettaton: Heh, not now darling…

He started to fly but one of those barbs immediately thudded into his right shoulder… he screamed and yelled as somehow even his vision was tinged green… he could feel and hear a hissing noise throughout his mechanical form somehow…

[Alphys]: Mettaton!

He found relief and freedom from the pain as that shoulder was ejected and flew towards the human… who leapt up… and jumped again in the air as the rocket boot shoulder corrected course once… and twice… the antique gun was fired one more time into it's exhaust… the thing exploded in purple fire… the human landed and continue to walk towards him…

Mettaton: Gh… Guess you don't wanna join my fan club…?

The hand gun was pointed level against his temple as he remained slumped on the ground, the last thing blocking the human's way…

Harley: I don't know, I think I do actually…

Mettaton: Tell me. Why?

Harley: I don't know either… I just wanted to go back and protect people, but now… I'm beginning to wonder if they're worth if anymore either… well, you tried to off me, so I'm offing you… nothing personal…

Mettaton: How can you tell me you don't know either? Nobody kills everyone and everything so passionately darling… Nobody goes out of their way to have such infamy in lieu of proper fame… You want to give everybody a show to remember… at least?

Harley: I guess you're right on that… I didn't do all this by accident… I didn't want to, but it's too late now… and I've had my fun playing with you.

Chara: Show's over.

The red glow returned to the human's eyes as the face changed from expressionless to a smile that Mettaton wished was merely a camera effect in a horror production he would never get to make.

Mettaton: And… cut.

Thorn's firing sound was… metallic… something like a cross between "ping, ping" and "thunk, thunk" when two shots were fired… Mettaton's final moments were agony before his humanoid form fell silent and exploded from the barbs planted into his forehead and eye. The human pulled out the final snack they bought and began to eat… nonchalantly pulling out the high heel shaped blades sticking out of them and dropping them on the floor with a clang…

Harley: Eh?

Mettaton had returned in his rectangular one wheeled form… having downloaded himself to this spare body which was in storage since Undyne perished…

Mettaton: I still… have to stop you… whatever you… are… both of you darlings… such power… and using it to write a bad movie…

Harley: You think you can stop me? Think again! Loser!

Harley raised her right hand into the sky… letting flow solar light into a hand cannon… as did the child… the antique pistol glowed with bright sun fire… One shot knocked Mettaton's wheel off… he crawled forwards… dragging himself along and gripping the child's legs… proving strong and heavy enough to stop them from moving…

Chara: Really now…

One more shot fired… melting through the metal that made up this body's back and the switch…

Mettaton: You think… you're the director of the universe's show… or the writer… don't you…

Harley: That's a really nice way to put it… let go or…

Mettaton: Or you'll what... release a horrible movie? You're directing one now... won't even pass 31.5% on average... like that series and its...

Chara pulled the trigger… ignoring Harley's potential offer of mercy… and solar particles began to flake out of the rectangular box… the armor itself beginning to flake away and dissolve into orange dust as well… The last of Mettaton's remains were a superheated orange panel, flat on the ground with a molten hole through it in the middle... the rest of him flaked away as orange particulate matter.

Chara: What do I care about how the irresponsible weaklings choose to make themselves feel good again?

Alphys watched the human continue onwards via the final camera she had installed… and then turned the surveillance off… The amalgamates and refugees knew they were safe where they were… but for now nobody was successful at consoling and comforting their savior as she wept over what had become a senseless sacrifice… now there was nothing left of Undyne or what made Mettaton… Mettaton.


	13. Prelude To A Bad Time

**Prelude to a bad time**

"Draw close now. Closer. Yes. Let me tell you why you should not fear Willbreaker, the sword of Oryx.

Firstly: Its blade is not dulled by age. Each death it trades for life hones its edge, gives it weight and gravitas and insistence within the vortex of its own totality.

Nextly: Willbreaker transcends liminality. Willbreaker demands a subjugation more diffuse than the simple snick and smash of a physical brink. It does not have to touch you to wound you.

And lastly-and this is critical: To be taken in Willbreaker's grasp is to know true bliss; that is, to be simplified;that is, to be reduced to one's most basic level, shedding all higher-order thoughts of fear or duty or selfishness; that is, to feel only pain.

Now do you see? Now do you understand what you've done?"

The lead up to what had once been a home was grey… it wasn't always like this… but it felt familiar… albeit now there was a "shell of what it had once been" feel… fitting… considering how much death was planned, and actually took place here…

King Asgore… her adoptive father… soon her way would be tested against his… and the supremacy of the underground would be determined… Chara smiled contentedly… she had learned much in a very few short span of days… and gained power to do what she once merged with Asriel for… and here she was… New Home.

Flowey: Howdy, Chara! You finally made it home. Remember when we used to play here? Hee hee hee… Boy! Today's gonna be just as fun.

She knew where the keys would be… Flowey… ha! Somethings really were hereditary… bad naming sense being one… She wondered if he'd be happier if he renamed himself Butters… she turned around and headed back down past the chair her adoptive mother once would be reading in…

Flowey: I remember when I first woke up here, in the garden. I was so scared. I couldn't feel my arms or my legs… My entire body had turned into a flower!

[Chara]: It isn't too bad a flower all things considered… perhaps you'll remind yourself of how you failed everytime you see it, you crybaby.

Flowey: "Mom! Dad! Somebody help me!" I called out. But nobody came.

Chara: Fine by me actually… I learned to be more… independent.

She passed by the entrance and locked stairs again… she knew where the other key was… but… somehow… she wanted to see their old bed room again… a last bit of weakness to give in to… before she would prune it off herself much like her adoptive dad would an errant plant… two presents sat in there… she fished her old locket out and put it on… she peeled away the old bandage this borrowed form had been wearing… the wound had long since healed…

Chara: Right where it belongs…

She couldn't have been happier with the other box… and threw the toy knife aside without regard for it anymore… so much of what she had been learning hinged on this being central to the fighting style anyway.

Chara: Here we are… about time…

The gun would probably still be of use… she had much to learn from communing through it… such sweet rich tribute… paid upwards only to be told she could use the killing accumulated for her own. She did her best not to react or look at the photo frame in the back of their room… this was not the time for such things… and would never be again hereafter… Flowey spoke up again as she closed in on the next key… burrowing and popping out nearly anywhere and anytime was so handy… she wondered if… no, she could stand to wait…

Flowey: Eventually, the king found me, crying in the garden. I explained what had happened to him. Then he held me, Chara. He held me with tears in his eyes, saying, "There, there. Everything is going to be alright." He was so… emotional. But… For some reason… I didn't feel anything at all.

Chara gave the most reassuring smile she could muster… was this a full lie or a weakness she would wean herself off soon… the excitement and anticipation… two keys turned in the chain and lock… Toriel was really a fool, if she had done this herself perhaps she might just live and draw breath… but perhaps… she wouldn't be as she was thanks to those she was learning so much from… There would be no conduit… Flowey waited below for her.

Flowey: I soon realized I didn't feel anything about anyone. My compassion had disappeared! And believe me, it's not like I wasn't trying.

Chara: That's… not exactly bad.

Flowey: I wasted weeks with that stupid king, vainly hoping I would feel something. But it became too much for me. I ran away from home. Eventually I reached the ruins. Inside I found her, Chara. I thought of all people, she could make me feel whole again… she failed… ha ha.

Chara: She fails… at a lot, for being the smarter one between mom and dad…

There was quite the sense of déjà vu… it was basically a copy of Toriel's abode in the ruins… Flowey moved along side her with a mix of burrowing and crawling roots… he was still talking… in many ways this was indeed like old times… only they, were now so very different… she could feel one of her mentors still willing to walk and complied… their goals were still quite aligned… but for how much longer indeed…

Flowey: I realized those two were useless. I became despondant. I just wanted to love someone. I just wanted to care about someone. Chara, you might not believe this… But I decided… It wasn't worth living anymore. Not in a world without love. Not in a world without you.

Poor Flowey… how would she tell him that the only meaningful love was to kill? That the only way was to clash and sharpen each other's swords so that in this savage world that would be the only happy ending? Better that than a happy world meeting a savage end… she had learned so much in this short time… yet she could feel her next change… would come soon, almost as if she on the cusp of transcendence or ascension… and she knew it.

Flowey: So… I decided to follow in your footsteps.

Now this, she found very interesting…

Flowey: I would erase myself from existence. And you know what? I succeeded.

Chara: So… why're you still here?

That sent Flowey's smiling face into quite a pause as she chose to walk on… she smelled weakness and fear all over him… he was shaped too much by the sky… how would he learn the lessons of the deep? He was still chasing her… was he truly soulless? He clearly had some kind of love for her still, contradicting himself by hungering for her approval… and she learned long since a lesson that showing of such love… was weakness… there was even that old "on the verge of tears" edge to his voice she recognized.

Flowey: But as I left this mortal coil… I started to feel apprehensive. If you don't have a soul, what happens when you…?

He was flashing that look at her again… but now she was no longer intimidated by it… shapeshifting one's face was a petty façade now that she knew and wielded true power…

Flowey: Something primal started to burn inside me. "No," I thought. "I don't want to die!" … Then I woke up. Like it was all just a bad dream. I was back at the garden. Back at my "save point".

Chara: Really? That sounds like bliss… for the coming war… an absolution from all the problems one seeks to solve… what's to fear?

Flowey's smile wasn't too genuine… she could feel the bubbling insecurity he had and… it was only accelerating the contempt she had begun to build for him… but this was a long walk… she could put up with him for conversation a bit longer…

Flowey: Interested, I decided to experiment. Again and again, I brought myself to the edge of death.

Chara: How adorably… precocious.

She wondered if the effort spent keeping sarcasm out of her tone was wasted.

Flowey: At any point, I could have let this world continue on without me. But as long as I was determined to live… I could go back! Amazing, isn't it Chara? I was amazed too.

Chara: Yes… that sounds… wonderful.

Now… this was far more interesting… she could subvert this power for herself with the sword logic… but perhaps this remnant of her adoptive brother may yet spill more useful information… she was glad she hadn't given in to the urge to kill him out of annoyance…

Flowey: At first, I used my powers for good. I became "friends" with everyone. I solved all their problems flawlessly. Their companionship was amusing… For a while. As time repeated, people proved themselves predictable.

Chara: Hmph. You don't need to keep seeing them again to know that…

Flowey: What would this person say if I gave them this? What would they do if I said this to them? Once you know the answer, that's it. That's all they are.

Chara: Ha ha ha…

Flowey: It all started because I was curious. Curious what would happen if I killed them.

Chara: Now you're speaking my new favorite language.

Flowey: "I don't like this." I told myself. "I'm just doing this because I have to know what happens."

Chara: That sounds dumb.

Flowey: Ha ha ha ha ha! What an excuse! You of all people must know how liberating it is to act this way. At least we're better than those sickos that stand around and watch it happen… Those pathetic people that want to see it, but are too weak to do it themselves. I bet someone like that's watching right now, aren't they…?

Chara: Yes, of course they are…

The view of the now deserted monster city came back as she was on the castle highroads… magnificent, simply majestic… she had made it this way… and those that had tried to stop her she now moved with their speed and strength by the power of the sword logic! She'd chant an 'Aiat!' at this point… but while he had his uses… Oryx sounded like an eventual rival she would need to confront and defeat despite learning much from tales of him whispered through her other mentor's gun and their conduit to her.

Flowey: Nowadays, even that's grown tiring. You understand, Chara. I've done everything this world has to offer. I've read every book. I've burned every book. I've won every game. I've lost every game. I've appeased everyone. I've killed everyone.

Chara took that into consideration… she realized… even if he had been cheating through time… that meant all those things really did happen to him… he was probably rich to bursting with killing… he didn't even know of the deep… but now she didn't want to tell him anymore… she hungered to take all he had done for herself…

Flowey: Sets of numbers… Lines of dialogue… I've seen them all. But you… You're different.

Chara wondered if he knew what she was thinking despite keeping her usual smile and gave him a wink to earn his trust back… He beamed back, this one seemed sincere.

Flowey: I never could predict you, Chara. When I saw you in the ruins, I didn't recognize you. I thought I could frighten you, then steal your soul. I failed, and when I tried to load my save file… It didn't work.

Chara was pleased… this meant her power already surpassed him despite his rich plumpness from all that killing… she did have a better understanding since her mentor had that fragment of Willbreaker…

Flowey: Chara… Your determination! Somehow, it's even greater than mine!

Past the naming differences… did he know? Would he turn on her despite what he thought of her and their bond? She strolled onwards to the castle proper, no longer interested in the abandoned city… her mind contemplating options on what to do with her adoptive sibling… was he a threat to her master plan? Even if not… he had so much tribute she could take for her own use he was ignorant of…

Flowey: I just have one question for you, Chara. How did you get back to the ruins from here? Wait… I know! She must have taken you when she left… and decided to give you a proper burial rather than… Hanging out in the basement forever… but, why then…? What made you wake up? Did you hear me calling you…?

She kept that smile up, wondering if saying no now would open a vulnerability in him for her to use…

Flowey: It doesn't matter now. I'm so tired of this Chara. I'm tired of all these people. I'm tired of all these places. I'm tired of being a flower. Chara, there's just one thing left I want to do. Let's finish what we started. Let's free everyone. Then… let's let them see what humanity is really like!

Ah… such a smile of relish… her mentor would approve… but not the foolish one that lied to herself that leading a kid back to the surface was doing the sky's work… She had hated her home village… but now… they felt so small and tiny to her, compared to what she wanted to and could do… when that state… so close…

Flowey: That despite it all… This world is still "kill or be killed!"

So… that… he was starting to put some lessons of the deep together for himself despite playing around with forces beyond his understanding… she just needed to wait a little longer since it seemed like he would serve as an ally against Asgore… though she probably wouldn't need his help anymore.

Chara: Then?

Flowey: Then? Well. I had… Been entertaining a few ways to use that power. Hee Hee Hee…

He stopped his gleeful laughter and one of those faces meant to intimidate softened…

Flowey: But seeing you here changed my mind. Chara… I think if you're around… Just living in the surface world doesn't seem so bad…

He clearly was still of the sky then… despite beginning to learn the ways of the deep… perhaps the voice from the gun… if she could find some way… but… the nature of what was taught… no, were he to learn of the same as she had… he would be just another obstacle to fight and test her way… even these feelings to offer such for him were a weakness she had to shed… the sky gave. The deep took.

Flowey: We don't even need to leave to get them this time. The king has six of them locked away. I've tried hundreds of ways to get him to show me them… But he just won't. Chara… I know he'll do it for you.

Was this also a trap? She couldn't tell if he had begun to machinate… had the voice from the gun reached out to him without her knowing as well? She knew very well Asgore wanted human souls… so… a trap for her or Asgore? She raised an eyebrow of her new body at the sentient Buttercup.

Flowey: Why am I telling you all of this? Chara, I said it before. Even after all this time… You're still the only one that understands me.

Chara: Really…

Flowey: You won't give me any worthless pity!

Chara: Yes… yes I won't…

Flowey: Creatures like us… Wouldn't hesitate to kill each other if we got in each other's way. So that's…

Chara realized he was beginning to think in a way above a child who had something other children didn't. That one facial expression shift sold it… perhaps it would be better and easier now to just kill him and subsume his unused Tribute for herself with the sword logic… and even gain that power of his… though her unwitting mentor had shown that sheer combat skill could nullify the need for such a thing… the eyes glowed red…

Flowey: So… that's… Why…

Chara: We make the best of partners?

She was hungry… and she knew that he was becoming aware of her hunger and intentions… she couldn't stop the feeling from leaking out… nor would she make any effort to… it had its uses… like right now… to cow this fool who had thought what he called evil was merely a toy… when he had been ignorant of how much more there was to it… rich, rich tribute from timeline manipulation called out to her… it smelled sweeter than any Butterscotch pie… and his fear whet her appetite more… all for her… no need to feed any dumb worm parasite because she had none.

Flowey:… ha… ha… what's this… feeling? Why am I… shaking? Hey, Chara… No hard feelings about back then, right?

Ah of course… he had tried to play with her host when her mentor in fighting skills took more charge of the situation… perfect… he had handed her a wonderful reason to attack her even by his own shallow imitation of the sword logic… but he had got the gist of it… by such rules it was to win… or not at all… She began to advance on him slowly… he panicked and attempted to back away faster… she noted with dim amusement that he was still at least going in the direction she still wanted to.

Flowey: H-hey, what are you doing!? B… back off!

Chara: By the rules you discovered… it's win or not at all…

Did plants sweat? It was funny seeing him so fearful after becoming so rich in killing… he really had no idea what he had really been doing at all, just like Aurash… curiosity killing the cat… she dimly recalled that from her days in that hated village…

Flowey: I… I've changed my mind about all this. This isn't a good idea anymore. Y-you should go back, Chara.

She continued walking forward… the light cast on her face shadowed her eyes because of the hair… but her eyes glowed brightly in that shade… oh, he was smiling… so was she…

Flowey: S-s-stop making that creepy face! This isn't funny! You've got a sick sense of humor!

Chara: And… toying with people across timelines with complete knowledge about them… I don't think I was anywhere near that. You… hypocrite!

Flowey burrowed away out of sight… she stepped over the hole left behind… and pondered… looking down into it… should she grab one of his vines or roots and pull him back out to end his misery and foolishness… put to far better use what he had accrued.

"Let him go… one such as that cannot be convicted enough to achieve what you have… you shall have him later."

She could feel her other mentor being frustrated, confused and arguing with her little light of the sky about how and what was going on… though they were beginning to piece together some sense… a reckoning with these figures was coming...

The final hallway to the castle was bathed in sunlight… legitimate surface sunlight… a little bit of kindness in the cruelty of locking monsters down here… in a way it also was more cruel. The hall seemed perfectly empty as two wills steered this body to walk through… until the shadows shifted a little, revealing a glowing blue eye.

Sans: Heya. You've been busy, huh?

Chara:…

Sans: So, I've got a question for ya. Do you think even the worse person can change…? That everybody can be a good person if they just try?

Chara stepped forward, she could feel the other will hesitating… she was in more control now… this would perhaps be her first real test then… Sans looked frail and helpless here despite his demeanor… easy EXP, LOVE… KILLING, TRIBUTE… whatever it was called, it made her strong and she wanted it… she couldn't wait to turn on the foolish girl of the sky and take her fighting skills with the sword logic… but Sans… surely her own abilities with a knife would suffice… she had the obscene defense and attack of Undyne… Toriel… even Mettaton had some worth despite the fact that that dumb machine should have been dead in one blow.

Chara: To be good… is to make a good thing… and the only good thing… is something that never breaks… therefore the only way to do that… is to break… everything and fail at something.

Sans: Heh heh heh heh…

She could tell that smile was fully voluntary… Sans was hiding his fear… or was that genuine smug confidence? She couldn't tell…

Sans: All right. Well, here's a better question. Do you wanna have a bad time? 'cause if you take another step forward… you are really not going to like what happens next.

Chara: You lie and bluff. You have nothing past that line in the sand.

She put one more foot forward… Sans closed his eyes one last time…

Sans: Welp. Sorry, old lady. This is why I never make promises.

Chara continued to walk forward… unease began to settle into her… Sans closed his eyes and was expecting to die… but yet somehow she felt that wasn't the truth… he seemed truly confident in ability to stand against her might…

Sans: It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming… On days like these… kids like you…

He opened his eyes to reveal dark eye sockets without pupils…

Sans: Should be burning in hell.

Sans waved his hand at her and an unknown force seized Chara's body… flinging her to the back end of the hall… where bones popped up and impaled her… she gasped… it wasn't just the magic bones… she was feeling countless knives slashing at her… her gathered tribute… the means of gathering it… now she was afraid… Sans sent a torrent of bones sliding down the walls of the corridor… Pain bombed her body… as she felt horrible visions of those she had killed laughing and tormenting her…each laugh rang like knives that tore the flesh of her host… broke the bones she was subjugating… She saw the things Papyrus had concealed behind a tree back in Snowdin come… their mouths agape and aglow… Chara dove for the center of where they would fire… only it was a trap… in her prone position where she had thrown herself, there would be no escape from the next four pointed at her… how she needed the fighting skills of the delusional idiot serving the sky… She didn't even hear them fire though her world went white… then black… all wrapped in pain.

She was shocked… and now she felt fear… for all her power she had gained to exert her will on the world… there were the foolish ones who thought and called themselves heroes who didn't… but they could indeed stand against her. Conviction… the thing that was Asriel did not have it or the ability to accept failure… a spoiled hypocritical child through and through… Sans had no shortage of it, and from that simple belief… a lesson about the sky drawing power from the sheer will to fight and indeed, fight very well against what was only natural… Sans was the first among that number… and she feared him truly, madly, deeply.

"Then learn from this as you still are… and validate your way or be extinct. One way dies… and another grows stronger. It is majestic."


	14. Megalovaniac

**Megalovaniac**

Beneath a green fire sky, in the throne-world of King Auryx, our lords embrace.

We the Hive watch as Savathûn puts her arm around Xivu Arath, and Xivu Arath clasps forearms with Auryx, and Auryx takes Savathûn by the shoulder. They are huge, huge, and they burn with furious power. But this embrace is weakness and we despise it.

Never before have we despised our lords. Have they failed us? We the Hive have been driven back, world by world.

"I am at my end," Savathûn says. "I plot and plan. But I cannot gather enough bloodshed to feed my worm. And the harder I try, the hungrier it becomes."

"I slaughter and kill," Xivu Arath says, "but the harder I fight, the more my worm demands. I too am at my end."

"The Ecumene war angels have killed me so many times," Auryx says, "that I dare not go out into the universe, lest I need my might to protect myself. My worm chews at my soul in hunger."

Is this the end of our crusade? Are we the Hive unworthy to exist?

Xivu Arath puts down her great head. "We should retire and gather our strength."

Savathûn closes her eyes in puzzled defeat. "We should beg the Worm our God to tell us what to do."

But King Auryx, who knows best the beauty of the final shape, roars at them. "Have you learned nothing? Would you deny our purpose? Whatever we do, we will do by killing, by an act of war and might. That is the final arbiter we serve, that violent arbiter, and if we turn away from it we deserve to be eaten. No! We must obey our natures. We must be long-sighted, and cunning, and strong. We must take this gift the Worm our God has given us, this challenge, and find a way to keep existing!"

"How will we feed our worms?" Xivu Arath asks.

"I know," says cunning Savathûn. "I know a way. But it won't work unless we are killing the Ecumene by the billions. How can we beat them?"

"If we cannot beat their strengths," says Xivu Arath, "we must infect their weaknesses. But they are lords of matter and physical law."

"I know a way," King Auryx says. "But it will require great power. More power than any one of us can claim."

"Then kill me," says Xivu Arath, "and use that killing logic, the power you prove by killing something as mighty as me."

So King Auryx took up his blade and beheaded Xivu Arath.

"And strangle me," says Savathûn, holding a blade behind her back. "Use that killing logic, the cunning you prove by killing something as smart as me."

But King Auryx turned with the speed and might of Xivu Arath, and beheaded Savathûn before she could move. King Auryx was the First Navigator, with the map of death.

These were true deaths, for they happened in the sword world.

Then he went to the Worm named Akka.

Harley: Did we die?

[H Ghost]: I… I'm not sure… but you've seen and heard… lived this moment before, haven't you?

Harley: Was that really… no, I don't… can't blame him. I've caused this… now the situation is… just for me to bring the kid out of here… and…

[H Ghost]: It's far worse than that… don't deny it… the kid… has changed as we did this… and right now we're in charge because Sans has cowed the kid into submission and fear… somehow.

Harley: I should be too… did he call Oryx… to beat on me back there?

[H Ghost]: I saw Atheon and Crota in the mix too… in your mind feed, not the one from the kid… I… didn't bother with that one…

Harley: Well, guess there's no use talking to him about this for sure… nobody would let somebody who killed somebody they loved go that easily… even if I… didn't mean to…

[H Ghost]: Ready?

[Harley]: I wouldn't know even if I said yes.

Sans: Heya. You look frustrated about something. Guess I'm pretty good at my job, huh?

Harley gazed back upon the smile which she knew now had to be forced…

Harley: Yes, you are…

Sans: It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on days like these, kids like you... .

Harley knew there was no evading the telepathic fling since all Sans needed to do was just have her in line of sight. She leapt away from the expected shower of bones and sprinted into the gauntlet , weaving with the narrow path she still found available… The lasers came again… She slid away from the walls… blinked away from the corridor filling beam… slides back to the center away from the wall hugging laser cannons which materialized… but her blink wasn't ready yet… she took the beam from the lasers that manifested at both ends of the corridor… but she was still standing this time… something that felt like Skolas' devouring essence gnawed away at her within… but much more intense… was this what her Thorn did when she fired upon others with it? It burned and pained as if all her bones were broken and set aflame… she didn't even find the ability to scream despite the horrible sensation… It was dark… like she was drowning in it… Alak'hul suddenly appeared from nonexistence with that trademark roaring teleport of his and slammed his Axe, cleaving her into two vertical halves… Her vision returned, tinged purple as Sans shrugged before her in a taunting manner.

Sans: Huh. Always wondered why people never use their strongest attack first. Anyway, as I was saying, it's a nice day out. Why not relax and take a load off?

Harley: That's not really an option for either of us at all…

San's grin remained, but she could just see his eyes narrow a little… a small gesture that said a lot of his hate and feelings. She blinked near to him after a sprint and attempted a blink strike… she connected with nothing… Sans was but a sidestep from where he was though she hadn't seen him move at all.

Sans: What? You think I'm just gonna stand there and take it?

He vanished… and stood at the opposite end of the hall, flooding down a torrent of bones on the floor… Harley felt the familiar blue telepathic energy tugging on her body… increasing gravity… almost like the weight of darkness back in Crota's lair… she was being slowed and her double jump was stifled.

[Harley]: How am I supposed to… the chandeliers.

She managed to jump up and began to pull herself onto the thing… it was built firm… could take her extra weight… Sans saw that and reacted by sending another pair of bones to rack the ceiling from the opposite end of the judgement corridor... she managed to drop off the chandelier but hold on with her hands… one bone brushed her fingers… it burned and felt broken, pain spreading from it throughout her body for a moment after that mere instant of contact… she gasped as she held on by her right hand. But her lopsided grip let a lower bone strike her foot as well… her body scorched and ached as if it was shattered… She pulled out the kid's gun and fired one thorn shot from it at Sans… who dodged nonchalantly… a slick side step or blink… she couldn't tell… she saw, felt and heard Draksis empty his shrapnel launcher into her torso as the winter kell was suddenly replaced by Quodron, who detained her… and the cell kept getting smaller and smaller, refusing to break no matter how she struggled and tried to escape… Harley blinked the kid's eyes to try to ease the karmic pain and purple tinge on their vision.

Sans: Our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. Timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting...

She fired one more shot… another miss. Sans waved his index finger in a no-no manner with a wink and head tilt.

Sans: Until suddenly, everything ends.

One more bullet flew as she had managed to bring her other arm up to start heaving herself onto the chandelier… San's seemed to phase through it as he appeared nearer, still keeping his hands in his pockets and wearing that shit eating smile… it looked genuine and fake at the same time somehow… forced for sure.

Sans: Heh heh heh... that's your fault isn't it?

[H Ghost]: Does that mean the Vex are…

[Harley]: Not now!

Sans forced bones up right under where her arms and hands were gripping the chandelier… she lost the antique gun from her grip and let herself fall off… making herself roll away as blue and white bones rose to impale her from where she had landed… she answered with a Skip grenade… Sans vanished and reappeared on the other side of the hall again, resetting their fight positioning.

Sans: You can't understand how this feels.

Harley: Actually… I do…

Sans paused… and seemed to contemplate her answer… but his right eye went out while his left one flared blue again… chucking another torrent of bones at her from both ends of the room… there was just a tiny gap between the bones and at varying heights across each of the attacks… she leapt through the first… blinked through the second while twisting into position to clear through the third… stabbed the blade the kid somehow found earlier into the wall to hold position from the bones coming via the other end… and kicked off to get through the fifth… it brushed her…

She saw Sepik's prime for a moment and it pulled a Servitor attack on her… and received a clean hit from the sixth of Sans bone attacks as the karmic hallucination faded and switched forms into another… The hulking form of Phogoth was now before her and slammed the ground, knocking her away and barraging her with ogre eye beams… Her back was now facing Sans when she landed… she wolfed down another of Mettaton's face steaks to heal up the kid's body…

Harley:… Maybe I don't…

Sans: Knowing that one day, without any warning... It's all going to be reset.

That voice source and volume… The skeleton was right behind her now… she spun around with a slash of the blade… it caught nothing… no, something… a knitting of orange threads… from Papyrus scarf which Sans now was wearing… Sans was now atop the Chandelier himself. She jumped and blinked to get at him, and received a hard kick that sent her back down to the floor, cracking the tiles with her landing… She was struck by a bone on the way down… this time The Nexus Mind's room appeared… A minotaur gave her a hard shove and she seemed to fall infinitely as an equally vast Nexus Mind blasted her with Void energy projectiles…

Sans: Look. I gave up trying to go back a long time ago.

[H Ghost]: What's he talking about…

[Harley]: Maybe this is a place Atheon has toyed with for too long… or the flower… Flowey… with what he said on the way here…

[H Ghost]: You thinking what I am thinking?

Sans: …and getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore, either.

[Harley]:… This definitely is a place with a funny relation to time then… I've seen that smile before… on guardians who congratulate us on going to the lighthouse… after we beat them… on the 8th yellow dot…

Sans: Cause even if we do... we'll just end up right back here, without any memory of it, right? To be blunt... it makes it kind of hard to give it my all.

Harley: And how would you know?

Sans retorted by telepathically slamming her into a wall and then releasing his hold for a moment as a white and long blue bone awaited below… she barely blinked in time but scrapped the blue bone… She was suddenly back in Crota's oversoul throne… only… wait, something was different… her role had always been rocketing the Monster of Luna to his knees while Karina bared the sword… but now she was at his feet with no stolen Hive sword… and Oryx's son brought his massive blade down on her…

Sans:... or is that just a poor excuse for being lazy...? Hell if I know. All I know is... seeing what comes next... I can't afford not to care anymore.

Harley: For the record, I'm really sorry we're ending up doing this to each other…

Sans watched, still with his forced smile as she jumped, blinked over his head… and he lost sight… she tried to blink strike from behind… but missed again as he teleported behind her once more, this time keeping out of that range.

Sans: Ugh... that being said... you, uh, really like swinging that thing around, huh? ... Listen.

Harley: I am…

Sans: I know you didn't answer me before, but... somewhere in there. I can feel it. there's a glimmer of a good person inside of you. The memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. Someone who, in another time, might have even been... a friend? C'mon, buddy. Do you remember me? Please, if you're listening... let's forget all of this, ok? Just lay down your weapon, and... well, my job will be a lot easier.

Harley: I…

[H Ghost]: See, even he knows you're not unredeemable… let's just talk it out with him…

In the unknown space… Harley pulled her mask off for a moment to wipe away tears flowing out of her eyes…

[H Ghost]: You ok?

[Harley]: No… because deep down… I know I'm long far gone to suddenly just choose to be better from what all the blood and dust on me and the kid's hands means…

[H Ghost]: No you're not… you're a guardian of the Traveler and…

Harley shed one more tear before putting the mask back on and pulling the hood she had pilfered from one of the Psion Flayers back over her head.

[Harley]: And… I feel like this is a trap anyway…

However she laid down the blade in the kids hands and got onto her knees, head bowed…

Sans: ... you're sparing me? Finally. Buddy. Pal. I know how hard it must be... to make that choice. To go back on everything you've worked up to. I want you to know... I won't let it go to waste. ... C'mere, pal.

San approached… arms spread wide… she could feel fear, not from herself flood her senses, but she suspected this was a trap by Sans for sure… she killed his brother when he had offered mercy… why would she deserve his now? But still, if this was a trap for her, she would make it one for him as well… Part of her wanted to let him end it… the monster she had turned the kid into… yet another part of her wanted to win… and see to completion this mission she had botched so much… even if she wasn't sure she should bring this kid home anymore… she considered herself undeserving of a new chance… she was the awful thing that took actions leading here… then if she really was such an awful evil thing… like the darkness, mercy was not of her by nature.

Sans and the child embraced… An electric buzz sounded in the air and Sans teleported away from the bug as a showstopper attack was pulled off, destroying the bones he had intended to stop the child and whatever demons within with… He simply grinned again and let his left eye flare an alternating blue and yellow.

Sans: Welp, it was worth a shot. Guess you like doing things the hard way, huh?

Harley understood that as a declaration of "I have been holding back." Sans was creepy when he somehow made his pupils fade away… She leapt up to the Chandelier before Sans… but suddenly she was back on the floor with his telepathy pulling…

[H Ghost]: He can warp us too?

Harley threw a razors edge out from her blade dance at the bones coming from both directions… breaking through the white one, but she held still so the blue one would pass by harmlessly… Sans warped her again, she jumped as bones came from both sides again… when the barrage finished, she noticed one twirling bone chasing after her… she threw a razor's edge at it… no effect… it slowly continued to home in on her… She flung the last of her current blade dance energy at Sans… who evaded again.

Sans: Sounds strange, but before all this I was secretly hoping we could be friends. I always thought the anomaly was doing this 'cause they were unhappy. And when they got what they wanted, they would stop all this.

Harley: You really knew… all this time… everything…

Sans winked and the laser cannons returned… Harley found the revolver in the pillar's shadow… she fired at the boney machine… it took damage where it was shot, but that didn't stop the assault it discharged on her… followed by another out of her line of sight… She was launched airborne by a detonation from the Nexus Mind and Undying mind… and took a barrage of projectiles from them both… Atheon grabbed her in his fist and slammed her into the ground, then stomped on her… crushing and pulping everything inside her body… Sans' lasers continued to fire… she felt like any moment her body would fail, but she persevered, sprinting out of the shots they lined up on her, leaping… double jumping… sliding… blinking… She fired at Sans again… it didn't connect, though part of her knew he was beginning to tire…

Sans: And maybe all they needed was... I dunno. some good food, some bad laughs, some nice friends.

Harley: I fucked up real bad… that's what you really wanted to offer me. Not… this…

Sans: But that's ridiculous, right? Yeah, you're the type of person who won't EVER be happy.

To say that touched a nerve was an understatement… Harley felt her shattered sanity turn to powder and liquefy from her fury at receiving that statement.

Harley: I… I hate you!

Sans flung her into the ceiling… Harley leapt up from the bones that carpeted the ceiling that would have impaled her… she was thrown into the other end of the corridor… but stabbed her knife into the ceiling, holding tightly onto it as more impaling bones formed on the wall gravity was now dragging her to… the knife cut a long deep gash into the ceiling. Sans began to pull her to the floor… She jumped again… but the bones remained there long and waiting… she fell onto them… The Psion flayers were holding her suspended in the air with the combined powers of their minds… they levitated her off the balcony of the Clovis Bray building… where below Valus Ta'aurac waited and fired his quake missile barrage and Gatling gun… hitting her repeatedly before opening his maw to swallow her whole…

Sans: You'll keep consuming timelines over and over, until... well. Hey Take it from me, kid. Someday... you gotta learn when to QUIT.

[H Ghost]: That's not really us… unless he means what we do in the vault of glass?

She sprinted to Sans… throwing out a blink strike… the skeleton didn't teleport this time but merely sidestepped in his slippers and threw a right straight that sent her flying away 15 feet… Bones began to move from both sides of the corridor in opposite directions… while the spinning bone chasing her whirled menacingly… she sprinted down the corridor… slipped in the gap between the bones moving in the other direction and began to sprint back with it. The spinning bone grazed her… in addition to the bruises and cuts… the burning shattering pain returned… Skolas stood before her… peppering her with his shrapnel launcher before switching to his Scorch Cannon…

Skolas: DOOM OF INNOCENT PEOPLES AND VICTIMS! TRAVELER THIEF!

Skolas fired three blasts at her… sending her back to the corridor with the burning happening all over her body… purple tinged her vision… she fished for leftover monster food to cope.

Sans: …and that day's TODAY.

Harley responded by firing three shots… Sans evaded the first… the second was but a foot to the right of the first shot… Sans flickered for a moment where that was aimed… she then without turning around fired again behind herself…

Sans: Cause... y'see... all this fighting is really tiring me out.

Harley turned around like she did with Papyrus, throwing a slash with the knife… Sans ducked underneath the blade and retaliated with a double punch aimed for the face and torso… she blinked after crouch jumping… and tried to aim the gun at Sans head… He slapped the revolver out from her hands… with a shoulder tackle as he spun around to face her… Harley threw a stab with the knife… and missed connecting by inches as Sans sent her flying back again by means of his fists… she felt his telepathic pull but it didn't last and she clung onto the Chandelier again… Bones coated the floor and ceiling… an exceptionally long one swept from opposite ends of the corridors on both sides… Harley hurled a Flux grenade at the long bone closest to her level… it detonated just in her face… She took some recoil splash and her vision tinged purple again from inhaling the magical bone's ether and particles… the Chandelier's main suspension gave way due to metal fatigue and damage accumulated over the fight…

Sans: And if you keep pushing me... then I'll be forced to use my special attack.

Harley: "Push me"? You dare say that to me!? I've been having a really bad time since I fell down here into the kid's brain. I'm out of my proper place and time with no hope of seeing home ever again. I've killed people I don't want to kill here and have dark forces swimming around in my brain that make me do things until nobody here who could help me would ever want to help me anymore, and I have no idea if what sent me here killed my friends… I've been having a bad time way before you decided to give me one… And heaven help the bloodthirsty monster I've turned this kid into by showing so much killing…

Sans paused for a moment… Harley didn't attack… she just glared at him… the bone chasing her was slowly whirling away in the opposite side of the room… it was the only source of sound…

Harley: Actually you know what, it doesn't matter… Why'd I even say that to you anyway? The only way this is ending is with either of us dead now no matter what I do… I'm long far gone in my brain even before I landed in this hellhole… might as well just see this through… So yes… I'm having… One. Bad! Day!

She blinked forwards and slid at Sans, the skeleton threw a kick which missed as Harley pulled into a Blink Strike… Sans caught the knife with Papyrus' scarf and twisted the fabric, flipping Harley over… but mid throw she pulled the blade out with a slash… and blinked to avoid the bones behind Sans had been intending to use… She pulled the gun on Sans again, but the skeleton stepped forward and with superior strength gripped her hand and averted her aim, sending the spike projectile shooting past his skull by an inch and into the wall behind… Sans threw a headbutt, breaking the kid's nose and forcing her to drop the gun… which he kicked behind him… He summoned another laser cannon to fire again… intending to hold Harley there to take the full blast of the beam… the white blast issued forth with a blinding light.

Dredgen Yor: Ha… so, you're the one currently using it…

Harley: What? Who are you… where is…

She looked past the fallen guardian… groaning and pain filled her ears… pain of others… that she inflicted while using this weapon… countless aliens that were humanity's enemy in the Solar system… and Guardians she had defeated with the weapon in the crucible and then some… she looked back at Dregen Yor… he wasn't Dredgen Yor anymore… a skull wept at her…

Papyrus:… I don't understand! Could you at least tell me the reason why you are doing this to us? Why?! Is there no chance of good existing in you at all anymore?

She couldn't answer and choked back her tears… there had been a good reason at the start… but now… there wasn't… just a path she had to take because there was no longer any turning back or repenting…. Papyrus was gone… now The Speaker sat there… no ends to justify the means she had undertaken… her reason twisting into a poor excuse and not even qualifying as one anymore as events went on.

The Speaker: I, had only hoped…that your ghost had chosen wisely.

That voice was filled with tired disappointment… she had been close to The Speaker ever since he helped her purify Thorn and helped her during her earlier unstable days after the FWC experiment with alternate universe viewer memories being implanted into her… A group of guardians came up to her… all bleeding blight from where stakes impaled their bodies… the kind Thorn fired.

Guardians: Congrats on your win using that thing… we lost our mercy of Osiris before this final round, just so you know…

Her vision was tinged with Purple… Sans was no longer holding onto her… but the whirling noise was loud… she leapt up onto the last Chandelier… to look for and spot her opponent… she felt like her body would fail anytime… and part of her wondered if it would be better for that outcome to take place… She powered up the blade dance and threw a Razor's edge at Sans.

Sans: Well, here goes nothing... are you ready? Survive THIS and I'll show you my special attack!

He seized her telepathically again… this time was brutal… he slammed her into pillars with enough force to crumble them… leaving Harley barely any respite to contort herself so that the bones didn't impale her… she attempted one blink, but Sans caught her in mid air and threw her back to where the sparkle and box were… breaking clean through the wall and into a very long corridor… which was coated with bones on every surface… Harley screamed as she forcefully dislocated the bones of her limbs out of their sockets to gain the extra flexibility and agility needed to contort and pass through the barrage she was flying through… Sans teleported a lot intermittently, taunting her with a wink… a shrug… his emptied eye sockets… until she finally impacted another wall in her current state… she forced herself to jump and blinked, using the little air time to force her leg bones back into working place as the wall shoved more magic bones out of itself at her…

Sans summoned his final barrage of Gaster Blaster laser cannons… and they began to surround Harley… she sprinted, but found her exit blocked by more that were coming in as the first fired… forcing herself to turn she jumped and blinked as the beam assault started… staying just behind the beam that was about to finish firing while remaining barely ahead of the ones that just started to attack… she didn't dare blink out of the circle for fear of a change to the pattern or disruption causing her to take a hit… she felt horrible now despite the extra defense from Arc blade… and couldn't imagine the kid's current physical state… Sans telepathy came into full force again… she couldn't even open her mouth to scream as her still dislocated arms continued to pain… As she was thrown from pillar to pillar until they crumbled, through every window… into the ceiling… But there was something about this psychic bashing… Somehow in it, she could feel Sans anger and frustration… a tantrum of sorts even as it was… and most of it was directed at himself for his failure to be powerful enough to stop her rampage…

The throwing slowed and then stopped, losing force with each telepathic toss…Sans dropped the child's body on the floor one final time… but his blue telepathic aura and the glow in his eyes didn't cease.

Sans: *Huff... puff*... All right. that's it. It's time for my special attack. are you ready? Here goes nothing. Yep. That's right. It's literally nothing… and it's not going to be anything, either. Heh heh heh... Ya get it? I know I can't beat you. Once you get a turn to attack again... You're just gonna kill me. So, uh. I've decided... it's not gonna BE your move. Ever. I'm just gonna keep having MY telepathy on you until you give up. Even if it means we have to stand here until the end of time. Capiche?

[H Ghost]: He's breaking… he's tired… and… please… just let him go.

Harley knew the kid was stuck, but she flexed her arms back into their sockets… she could feel fear and frustration in the dimension… though she only felt the latter.

[Harley]: We need a plan…

[H Ghost]: We don't… you've won… we... we've won…

An hour passed…

Sans: You'll get bored here. If you haven't gotten bored already, I mean and then, you'll finally quit. I know your type. you're, uh, very determined, aren't you? You'll never give up, even if there's, uh... absolutely NO benefit to persevering whatsoever. If I can make that clear. no matter what, you'll just keep going. not out of any desire for good or evil... but just because you think you can. and because you "can"... ... you "have to".

[Harley]: He's losing focus… I guess we outlasted him… till he wore out…

[H Ghost]: I didn't know skeletons could sweat… he's still focusing on us… it must be draining…

Another hour elapsed…

Sans: But now, you've reached the end. There is nothing left for you now. So, uh, in my personal opinion... the most "determined" thing you can do here? Is to, uh, completely give up. and... *yawn* do literally anything else… z…zzz

The blue aura shimmered… and lifted entirely… Harley wasted no time popping the kid's bones back into place.

[H Ghost]: I can't belief he just… fell asleep…

[Harley]: More like passed out from exhaustion…

[H Ghost]: You gonna let him go?

[Harley]: Yeah… poor guy… I've caused… way too much suffering here… his words hurt… a lot. But they are true…

[H Ghost]: That's really unlike you… why would you… after all you've…

[Harley]: Exactly… and, I don't feel the urge to kill anymore… if I could have a do over here Ghostie… I'd… I'd do better.

[H Ghost]: I'm glad… you've come to such a realization…

The kid's body stroked sans shoulder and patted him on the head once… but as Harley prepared to leave she suddenly realized something… the kid's body wasn't responding anymore…

[H Ghost]: Wh… why aren't you…

[Harley]… It's not me!

The kid slashed with the knife, but Sans woke up and teleported out of the way.

Sans: Heh, didja really think you would be able-

Chara: Yes, I won't pass this up.

A blink strike followed up… it scored… a bright red wound appeared on Sans… who looked just as shocked to receive it… Harley gasped… that was from her, but it wasn't her will…

[H Ghost]: Why did you… Why? You said you would…

[Harley]: I… that… was my light but it… it wasn't me! I… Oh God… no… please…

Sans coughed once… red trickling out of his mouth… his smile was gone for a moment… as he looked down at his hoodie where a red flower was blossoming from the slash wound… and he grinned, again… Harley felt her organs within turn to lead and sank to her knees… Thorn dropped from her hands… clattering to the side of the dimension she was locked in… She beat her fists furiously on the walls of this accursed place… tears streamed down her face as she ripped the Mask of the third man off her head…

[Harley]: I can't take this anymore! Let me out! Let me out! Let me out! I… I… I… can't… don't want to do this anymore…

Sans:... ... ... so... guess that's it, huh?

He slowly started to get to his feet, closing his eyes and clutching his chest and torso…

Sans:... just... don't say I didn't warn you. Welp. I'm going to Grillby's.

Harley was back in control of the kid… she watched him stagger, stumble… and caught him as best she could when he fell at last…

Harley: I… I'm so sorry… I… really am…

Sans:… you are… but the other you… isn't.

Harley:…

Sans: But they wouldn't be… the skill in fighting is really yours… not theirs… you let them…

Harley:…

Sans: You, knew better… Too little, too late? G…go…to H..ell…

Sans smile brightened a little as that sparkle in his eyes began to dim for good…

Sans: Papyrus, do you want anything?

Unknown to Harley and her ghost as they grieved… the neglected Thorn in the corner began to spew a trickle of Blight…

Harley: It… it wasn't me… it was… the third… 'man'.

What was left in that hall was a pile of dust, a blue hoodie and an orange scarf lying on the floor.


	15. Regicide

**Regicide**

"And then father, the Rapture dream was over. You taught me that innocence is a chrysalis, a phase designed to end. Only when we are free from it, do we know ourselves. You showed me that my survival, my joy, are all that matter. I indulge, nothing else exists.

The Rapture dream is over, and in waking I am reborn. You may not have wanted me father, but you defined me. You chose to survive, no matter the cost, and I will not let your instincts go to waste. You'll always be with me father, your memories, your drives; when I need you, you'll be there whispering from my shoulder. There is no name for what I am, but the world is about to change. And with your help, they will never see me coming."

Chara: Not really something I'd want to sleep in ever again.

She turned around and left the room full of coffins… She had taken enough tribute... enough killing and devastation. There would be more… but right now she would make this body truly hers first… she leaned against the entrance to the throne room… remembering herself playing here with Asriel as children for the last time… she felt a wiggling struggle within herself… fear… at what was happening and coming… futile… and pathetic.

[Chara]: Stop struggling…it'll all be over soon… your soul is mine…

She wondered if the magic of Toriel, the strength of Undyne… the sheer cunning tenacity of Sans… and with some hilarity… whatever Mettaton had… that she had taken with the sword logic… would it be enough for the inevitable confrontation with that broken delusional servant of the false god? She knew it was here now… a planet away, no doubt… but… the wound in the Vex energy was letting her take control of it… how contrived that she would change the past because of a hostile takeover attempt by a force in the future not yet arrived… Asriel… what he had become was now the key… she would need him dead to cut the knots and make herself dominant in this universe…

That also meant she would probably one day face the mighty Oryx herself in a battle for supremacy… she relished the thought… but she had to start the final phase of this current plan… with that, she turned into the flower garden where Asgore awaited… his back was towards her as she entered.

Asgore: Curious. I've never seen a plant cry before…

The grass and leaves rustled under her feet… her former adoptive father turned around…

Asgore: Huh? You must be the one the flower just warned me about. Howdy!

Chara looked up at his physically imposing figure… but she wasn't intimidated at all… she longed and wanted to cut to the chase immediately. Talking was a waste of time.

Asgore: Erm… What kind of monster are you? Sorry, I cannot tell. Well we can always…

Chara drew the knife out immediately, advancing… Her former father took two steps back…

Asgore: Now, now… there's no need to fight… Why not settle this over a nice cup of tea?

She slashed, channeling an imitation of Undyne's spears… Asgore went down on his knees immediately…

Asgore: Why you…

Chara: So, I really am that different that you don't see who or what I am… do you? King… dad…

Chara had placed a taunting emphasis on her punctuation in those last two words. Asgore grimaced and flapped open his cape… he discarded his now halved trident… Chara blinked backwards as she noticed an orange glow at her feet, which erupted into a pillar of fire…

Asgore: This must be some foul trick… Chara is dead… w…what are you?

Chara: I already answered you… though… I see now where Asriel got that self-deluding habit from…

Asgore: You are covered in dust… I had thought you some monster I knew nothing of… But… monster… doesn't just mean our kind does it? It's also a state of being… Chara was a troubled child, but she was good in her own way… You stain her memory with every word…

Chara: Oh I was indeed that child… though now, I am so much more… or maybe this is what I really was back even then… let me share something special with you… Mom took me out of the coffin below and left the day you swore vengeance on humanity… I'm going to do that for you now since you can't fulfil the one desire we truly shared… after I am through with you…

Asgore: It is true… I have done and swore horrible things in my anger only to regret it now… but… I shall merely end you and the barrier when the soul you have is reclaimed… what I do know is, failing to stop you now… will be far more horrible…

Chara had never seen her adoptive father truly fly into a rage before at all… even when she fed him buttercups by mistake… Asgore braced and picked up his trident parts, superheating it… and welding it back together in one stroke… but he did not lower his head and kept all eyes on her… She sprinted at him and Asgore charged as well… but she leapt and blinked as he slammed his trident where she would have been in…

Chara: Over here king dad!

Asgore: You don't want my throne… you wouldn't be content until everything is your way, only…

Chara: True… but… I brought mom to see you…

Asgore continued to step forward, though now his face was wracked from a futile, fatuous sense of justice… to anger, born of worry…

Asgore: What did you do?

Chara blinked so that she was seated on his shoulder…

Chara: Don't worry king dad, this isn't an attack…

She kissed him on the cheek… letting his check touch where Harley had cried when Toriel first perished… She felt him shudder…

Chara: That's right… you can feel it can't you?

Asgore: T…t…Tori…

Chara: Aren't you proud of me Kind Dad? I brought you and mum back together!

Asgore: You… you… you!

She leapt off as Asgore attempted to throw her off violently… he slammed the Trident on the floor, sending a burning crack which bled flames after her… the flowers in the room charred immediately…

Asgore: You dare come here impersonating… my child… mock my family, and after slaughtering hundreds of my people?! My beloved subjects?! My Toriel! You took her!

Chara: Oh now, will you strike me down, and discover I really was your child, and then despair?

Chara blinked away from another such swing of the trident… and appeared behind her adoptive father again, who brought the trident back up for an overhead stab… which connected… Chara spread her arms wide and welcomed the blow… she looked at her adoptive father… and laughed at the horror slowly creeping onto his face and eating away the fury… she laughed until that was all the sound that filled the throne room, her eyes glowing brighter red than ever… and stopped breathing. Asgore turned away from the sight and sank to his knees, flames slowly crawling around the once beautiful throne room via the plants he had covered the place in… fittingly symbolic of what he felt of his regime now…

Asgore: I'm… a really bad king… I failed my people… and my family… fed them false hope of leaving this place… and now my family is well and truly dead… and my people are in mourning once again… *Gasp*

Asgore saw there was a blade clean through his neck… he fell and turned as he did so… he beheld his killer for the last few seconds of his life… It had the shape of a human child… but the wound he inflicted wasn't just bleeding human blood… something black, but unnaturally so was flowing out from the injuries… and even the eyes… a dull green glow around the gun she now pointed at his head.

Chara: Now you've come to terms with the truth… perfect… and as the sky must always do so when the lies they build around them tumble down… 6 human souls… I wonder what would have happened if you got one more… would you absorb all that power and gain it only to realize you didn't have the stomach to devour? As a god, you have the ability to dictate what will and will not exist, this… power… to go on existing… eh?

She vaguely remember this sight… a ring of bullets surrounding someone… Asgore… which then closed in and finished off her prey… leaving his white trembling soul there… followed by another ring of bullets which struck the soul and shattered it… Chara felt her frustration grew… despairing opponents or those in the most vehement denial turned into the sweetest tribute and the most nourishing… she picked up the knife left behind and made her decision about who she knew had just ruined what she was planning. Asriel… well, Flowey… as he insistently called himself now… appeared from a crack in the floor.

Flowey: See? I never betrayed you! It was all a trick see? I was waiting to kill him for you!

Chara: I. Don't. Buy. That. It took a display of what you'd call true evil to send you scurrying for the strongest side is all…

The plant's face turned into a familiar one.

Flowey: After all it's me, you best friend. I'm helpful, I can be useful to you. I promise I won't get in your way.

Chara: I don't need the help of somebody who, for so long, failed to realize things stop being fun when people really get hurt… who did it all just because he could have… fun… it's a very bad reason.

She stepped forward. The knife still covered in fresh dust from Asgore. The Tribute he unknowingly had called out to her, she was so hungry for his… how many timelines had he been killing for fun in?

Flowey: I can help… I can… I can…

From Flowey's point of view… her hair shadowed most of her face… leaving only a pair of glowing red dots looking back at him… the knife was brought to that demoniacal smile… and given a little lick. That was nothing compared to the sheer aura that she emitted… it felt like hearing millions wail and howl in despair while one was helpless to intervene…

Flowey: Please… d-don't k…k…k-kill me…

Chara: Well… I like your former offer… which, I think you can fulfil perfectly and easily…

Flowey's fear seemed to abate a little… he began to offer a weak smile again… Chara realized she didn't really think of him as her best friend anymore either… in fact she felt far more fondness for the unwitting pawn who had taught her much about how to fight and was still unknowingly letting her borrow her prowess and powers… which she would soon take for herself… it would be a fight to remember, for that foolish servant of the sky did have a strange love for her, which brought a declaration of protection… Chara had love for her too, and this love… is war.

Chara: But… it's mutually exclusive from the latter, which thus… I decline. Goodbye… Asriel.

Flowey didn't die from the first few initial slashes… and she savored how he looked as it happened… his tribute was rich, thick and sweet… like melting honeyed fat… though she realized there was one unique flavor not present in Flowey's assimilated tribute… It was that of Sans going down.


	16. Omnicide

**Omnicide**

Chara my friend…Misanthrope and adopted by the Dreemurr family. You seek vengeance on your kind. Your brought despair to your adopted people…

You have been taken…

No… you gave yourself over…

Hush now, there is nothing here to hate.

Have the peace you never knew in life… and still your vengeance, temper it. Take the time to weep over the regrets.

Empathy Chara, you still feel it… it inhibits you from your true power and the will to cause change.

Kill or be killed is too simple… you are championing your way, and we shall see if your way can stand as the universe wages wars within itself to take on its eventual final shape.

Power, you lack power to shape the world.

There is a knife for you, it is shaped like [Sociopathy]

Take up the knife, discard your weakness, seek power with the sword logic.

Gifted… Blessed… Cleansed… Bearer of your own will…

Carve the world into your desired shape.

Harley found a kid with rosy cheeks and a smile standing before her… in a simple green and yellow striped shirt as well as brown pants… The vex space was warping around and twisting… as if it wanted to fail and collapse but some law of reality was being twisted so that it wasn't allowed to.

Chara: Greetings. I am Chara. Thank you.

Harley: You're… welcome…

There was uncertainty and a little fear in that reply… of course. She was dressed differently from this body's original attire before it became hers… whatever this guardian was in persona, she still had the instincts of an unquestionably powerful warrior.

Chara: Your power awakened me from death. My "human soul." My "determination". They were not mine, but yours. At first, I was so confused. Our plan had failed, hadn't it? Why was I brought back to life? …You. With your guidance. I realized the purpose of my reincarnation. Power. Together we eradicated the enemy and became strong. HP. ATK. DEF. GOLD. EXP. LV. Everytime a number increases, that feeling… That's me. "Chara".

H Ghost: My god… you're talking about how the hive do things… and killing all of those creatures… taking their money…

Chara: Is that really so different from what you do generally? You went around, killing evil space aliens, because you were told to… took their loot, and glimmer… you even foolishly tried to take a weapon made out of what you knew was a twisted pact with the forces you opposed… Though… on my end, I'd call it beautiful.

Harley: There… is a difference. I am fighting those that would kill us if we didn't fight back… I didn't know better about this world…

H Ghost: You… were using her and Thorn as a conduit to the darkness… no wonder there were those moments of bloodlust…

Chara: That's not entirely me was it? Part of you thought it would be so much easier to protect the poor helpless child by simply killing everything at one point… deep down, you did want to do those horrible things…

H Ghost: No, you manipulated her mind and…

Harley: Ghost… she isn't entirely wrong…

Chara: Despite being of the sky… I know you have shown love for me in your own way by protecting me, now I no longer need that… but I offer you to join me on my quest… but you will need to learn to love differently… love of the deep, and this love… is war.

The dimension swirled with blight… this was a darkness zone now… an intense one… the kind where those of the light were in true jeopardy if they fell to their opponents… Harley knew now how badly she had screwed up… her once prized Thorn had also somehow given its allegiance back to the darkness, and the kid she had been protecting was now using it and drawing the power of the taken from it somehow… with a trail of corpses in her wake… the Hive didn't kill for fun, they killed with purpose… If this was the past it was no surprise Oryx or the darkness itself could retake the gun or exert their powers through it… though it wasn't supposed to even have been made yet… so did she screw the time stream and humanities fate as well?

Harley was so focused on the kid and lost in her own head and consequence that at this point she didn't notice another Vex energy cloud building up… which deposited Karina and Jing behind her…

Harley: That's… hive mystical mumbo-jumbo, please don't do this kid… just go back to your village… lead a normal life.

Chara: Never. I am far more than I once was thanks to you in a big part... Now. Now, we have reached the absolute. There is nothing left for us here. Let us erase this pointless world and move on to the next.

Harley: No, please… don't do this…

Jing: What's going on here?

Chara: No…? Hmm… How curious. You must have misunderstood. SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?

Chara charged as Jing walked in front of Harley…

Jing: Hey kid… whoa… you don't feel right…

He took a slash and went down… not even yelling, his ghost hovered there… Harley stared in shock and horror as one more slash came for her as well… the kid's eyes were no longer glowing red… just brown sockets leaking blight as an unholy laugh no kid should ever be able to produce roared forth from her throat… her mouth dripping blight as well…

Karina: Beloved! Harley! Look out!


	17. The Thanonaut

**The Thanonaut**

The tower… present day…

Harley: Is that the time? I gotta go…

B312: Wait, where? Why?

Harley: You're not the only guardian I'm trying to bring to the lighthouse this week… I gotta keep that promise… if you wanna hear the rest, maybe go find Jing… he'll ramble it to ya while you keep him company at work or something, ha ha…

H Ghost: We're going to be late…

Harley: Call the ship, I'll jump in off the balcony…

H Ghost:… Zavala's not going to like this when he hears… there have been ship crashes when some past guardians got too… cocky.

Harley: Blah blah blah!

Ghost: Those two… certainly get along…

B312: I'm glad we're less vitriolic by a massive degree…

Ghost: Well, I've sent a message to Jing's ghost… we'll have to meet him tomorrow… how about some patrol and bounties for rep as of now?

B312: Why not? Always wanted to see what the big fuss about all these older model guns were…

A long time ago, far from the city:

A Ghost floated along the skyline of what was once a grandiose island metropolis just a little north of the equator… there was a light Fallen presence in this former city… so light that there wasn't a captain seen on the island as of yet.

As always, the task was to seek a light compatible human, neo human or awoken remains or Exo… this place had a reputation for absurd population density in it's prime… an island nation… the ghost wafted along, hugging close to buildings to avoid drawing attention… the east coast was crowded with condominiums… long abandoned and left to fall apart, those built with mainly glass paneling looked especially perilous, some of the windows panes had long fallen off or shattered due to old age. Some skeletons and remains here and there, none compatible.

The night ebbed into the place as the ghost continued, thoroughly combing every building it could find south of the river… it was a tiresome search that would seem to never end, not unlike a human seeking true love… which like many such tales, would end when most unexpected or anticipated.

The ghost searched a new apartment complex when it sensed a Solar detonation… a small one for sure, but if it was an incendiary grenade or firebolt… what matter was there was a guardian nearby and perhaps it could tag along and get some protection for its task…

There was mumbling, human mumbling, barely a whisper from a figure clad in what looked like a guardian's armor… only there was no trademark class look to identify… the armor looked like a rather kit-bashed composition, more so than guardians who didn't use shaders… and… the ghost realized it sensed light compatibility… but not the intense light of a guardian. It silently drifted around the figure at work on what looked like an Ice Breaker type sniper rifle… with several wires and systems clearly drawing power from it… if it could scan just one part it would determine the purpose of the set up… and perhaps offer help… The room and apartment was in total darkness, the man had been working with night vision technology…

The ghost was surprised when he turned around to address it… he held a finger up to his mouth and spoke in a barely audible whisper.

Man: I'm pretty excited to see a real ghost of the tower, but as I value my life… I can't afford to express it… why're you here?

Ghost: How did you know I entered the place…

Man: This is a very sensitive visor and I have a potent motion sensor built into my kit…

Ghost:… A common man would mistake you for a Guardian…

Man: Ha, I'd wish… I'm going back to work, but I appreciate your company.

Ghost: Why're you so far from home?

Man:… Because I want to be…

Ghost: Really?

Man: Well, that's the short version… my family fled to the city from this area during the collapse… but they kept the keys… and I got an excuse to have quite the adventure of my life…

Ghost: Ice breakers are rare… how did you get one?

Man: I met some guardians along the way… one accompanied me here… she let me have it to protect myself, beautiful girl…

Ghost: Can I scan your setup?

Man: Don't power anything up…

The ghost flashed and studied the wires going into the ice breaker…

Ghost: A power source for your research computer and datalogs… also to vent energy to prevent the combustion these systems are known for… you're one of those drifting citizens who bring anything they can back to the city… history, knowledge, weapons… golden age scavenge…

Man: I suppose I now am… first time out here actually…

Ghost: Did you have a ship?

Man:No…

He got back up after a final bit of tinkering…

Man: There, no more solar booms at night… I can't have Fallen picking up what I'm doing here… I needa rest… you mind helping me keep watch for Fallen?

Ghost: Gladly… I… want to discuss something with you tomorrow…

The ghost watched the night away as the man slept in his armor... kitbashed onto it were urban combat gear components from several different eras of humanity's infantry equipment… a few pieces of Fallen captain energy shielding… even one from a Cabal centurion somehow… and one Vex minotaur's… the ghost took a moment to waft around the room… it seemed like the Ice Breaker here had exploded at least more than once… then had those volatile energy cells replaced… the only notable feature was a Cabal Phallanx shield that had a red ribbon carved into it along wrapped around the visage of what seemed to be an elderly man… a crescent and five stars adorned the left tail end of the carving in the Cabal shield… which was painted red with a mix of lipstick, hair dye, poster color and water color…

The man popped open some far outdated army rations to eat for breakfast after sleeping when a sunbeam finally hit his visor… The ghost uneasily decided to broach the subject it had been dwelling on… in the vast silence between them… which seemed like a deep wide chasm.

Ghost: Do you… want to become… a guardian?

Man: Whoa… me?

Ghost: Yes…

Man: You don't even know my name and you're offering me… immortality and super powers…

Ghost: …You're right, that's rude of me, can I have it?

Man: I'm Jing… at least that's what I tell people to call me…

Ghost: You have light compatibility, you're alive… and you seem to be quite skilled in combat and with weapons…

Jing: What if I'm just lucky so far?

Ghost: Then let's make you a super hero… like you said…

Jing:… Call it being stubborn or prideful or arrogant… but… I'm going to have to turn you down for now…

Ghost: Oh…

Jing: Don't get me wrong, if I die, you can do whatever you want… and well, maybe the man that rises won't be me anymore but… I'd like to know what dying is like, if you know what I mean… without being able to come back…

Ghost: You aren't part of the Ghoul Complexity are you? The ones who think Guardians are… zombies or something…

Jing: Of course not… the guardians are like people aren't they? Good eggs and bad… all the same… I'm here by myself, everything you see here I scavenged… stole back from the Fallen, killed for…

Ghost: Can I stick with you though? If I find someone else to raise as a Guardian I will… or I'll get lucky and maybe you'll… er… change your mind… my job would be much easier if I was paired with an active guardian, but you're the next best thing.

Jing: Ha ha ha… alright I guess… you aren't hoping I'll die, are you?

Ghost: Not out of malice but from dealing with something long and tired on my own part… I'm being selfish I know… no offense…

Jing: None taken…

The next month the ghost remained with Jing… she learned more of Lee Kuan Yew… who was carved and painted onto the Cabal shield… watched him battle dregs and vandals with the Ice Breaker… where he hid his stolen pikes… (Just the massive underground carpark of this condominium complex) the security system he built into the apartment over the year living here… which would never be activated except as a dire last resort… he enjoyed how the place still seemed like a deserted set of human buildings to the occasional Fallen patrol that came by… though they had been rising in frequency lately… captains made their debut as well.

The ghost watched the crack on the moon as her Singaporean pseudo guardian slept… he had taken his armor off to wash… and was in a torn and tattered red shirt and equally torn and patched grey camo pants… and there a mattress made from Yoga mats with foam and sponges stuffed in between then belted together… some comfort over the last few weeks… Then it came… totally unexpected…

A "Bing!" sounded through the air with a droning metallic buzz with pops mixed in sounded as the moon glinted green for a brief moment… she panicked and floated rapidly over to the sleeping rifleman… she flashed a few beams at his face, he woke up…

Jing: What… what is it?

Ghost: Hive tomb ships warping in… you… really need to go, now.

Jing: Is there time to pack?

Ghost: I saw fallen skiffs coming over… it's not a risk I'd take, choose carefully.

Jing: I'll suit up…

He had barely finished putting on his combat armor when the ground shook and trembled with a deafening bang… the windows of the complex that were still intact shattered… and the building trembled in its wake while a high rise block on the far side collapsed… there was a long black spire with a sickly green glow coming from it… smoke and dust was everywhere outside… the ghost knew things had just gotten a lot worse as knights, acolytes and thralls began to pour out of the tomb ships and fallen skiffs from the space port further to the east began to come in great numbers… Jing barely got back to his feet…

Jing: What was that?

Ghost: Hive seeder, you need to go now, the Fallen and Hive will swarm this place soon and no matter who wins… if you're still here, you lose…

Jing: Start it all up on my signal then…

Ghost: The cameras?

Jing: The guns too… if we never speak again, it's been a pleasure.

Jing had never fired the icebreaker as a weapon before… the guardian that bequeathed it to him had warned him of its spontaneous combustion tendencies… he used a scavenged Golden Age SAR21 rifle for his gun work here… an antique by today's standards, but scavenge enough of the rifle and you can put a working model from the buildup of parts…

He took cover on the balcony and watched as the battle erupted around the Hive Seeder…

Jing: The enemy is moving against each other…

Ghost: Do I activate?

Jing: No… wait until the fighting in front of this building is more intense…

Ghost: You're not planning to escape at all are you?

Jing: You want your guardian don't you?

Ghost: You're still a human who needs protecting no matter what we agreed on prior… If you die I'll be raising a clean slate, there'll be nothing of you left in there except your black hair and DNA… that guardian wouldn't care of Lee Kuan Yew or what you scavenged here… he won't be you.

Jing: Shock and awe… and then I'll make a break for one of my pikes…

Ghost: If you die fine, but don't be reckless with your life please…

Jing: Two Fallen walker-tanks… third skiff is carrying one more in… it looks odd… heavily armored… but no guns… must be a bomb…

Ghost: I'd root for the Fallen on this one then… Fallen are bad news, but nothing renovation and bleach can't deal with… Hive? What they leave behind is…

Jing: Alright, my visor's reporting stealth Vandals mixing in with that batch of Thralls in the lawn before the lobby… fire it up, including the elevator, I'm going….

Jing sprinted out the front door and called the lift as his embedded turrets and flame throwers opened up on the thralls, incinerating them and shredding the vandals… the building was temporarily clear of opponents for now… he sent one elevator down, stopping at every floor as a distraction and boarded the other servicing the building… when suddenly there was a loud metallic groan… creaking… and a snap that indicated rusty metal fatigue…

Jing stirred after the elevator crashed down… he had always taken the stairs… perhaps this was a time he should have done just that again, it was only 6 floors… but he had been urgently trying to run away… the ghost was still knocking his helmet with her shell…

Ghost: Hey, wake up…

He had conked out, but nothing really hurt… the managed to open the elevator doors and… a Hive tombship warped in above his head…

Ghost: You can out run the guns on that thing…

A hive ogre was the first to exit the vessel and roared on seeing him. He scampered behind a wall as purple energy barraged his defensive cover… shields flickering from the impact… One thrall came over, he struck it in the head and shot another one screaming up behind him also in the head… the wall began to crack… he fired a few rounds into the ogre's tumorous eyes the moment his shields recharged… the beast flinched… he hurled a grenade wrapped in a paper sack attached to his armor… an orange ball of flame ignited on the ogre…

Ghost: That's a Solar grenade… how did you…

Jing watched the ogre crumbled into dust and embers as the tomb ship warpped away… he glumly noted the pike he had been planning to mount and evacuate on had been crushed by the ogre and the carpark where he kept his stash of pikes had caved in…

Jing: The guardian gave it to me… she was a warlock… dark skinned… I-something Rey… surprised it worked after so long… we have a bigger problem, there's no way out for me now… I don't think I can outrun these guys on foot…

Ghost: If you stay here you'll die…

Jing: You'll have a guardian…

Ghost: I'll lose a friend.

Jing: Get used to it, we humans are pretty damn frail.

Ghost:… you always have a plan, I know that much, what is it?

Jing:… The Fallen are trying to get that third walker into the seeder… I assume they want to blow it up only when inside… we can make it blow up outside… and clear the place of them both.

Ghost: How?

Jing: I'm going to break some Ice…

His Sar21 was empty now… he dropped it and picked up an Acolyte's Boomer…

Ghost: Nobody has ever made that thing fire besides the Hive… not for our lack of trying…

He tossed it over his shoulder and grabbed a fallen weapon instead… a shrapnel launcher as well as a shock blade he slipped into a sheath on his back…

Ghost: You really think and plan things out far ahead to have that…

Jing: I should make one for a Hive sword.

Jing climbed the stairs slowly and methodically, he didn't want to sprint in case he got into a fight… there was a sickly green glow coming from Hive devices he didn't understand near his apartment…

Jing: They're in my house…

He was furious and opened the front door where sickly black wisps of evaporating Hive sludge were emitting… Thralls in slight variances of size screamed at the sight of him and charged… but there was barely a dozen, they scratched and clawed him as the shrapnel launcher thundered away… his shields were depleted and some claw marks were on his armor… but there was nobody left to oppose him now…

Ghost: There has to be a wizard here…

Jing: You think I can kill it?

Ghost: Yes, just drop her shields and dome her fast… she'll throw arc shots and poison smoke at you, so be careful…

His shields recharged as he reached the room where ice breaker sat…a Hive rune had been scrawled over his carved Cabal shield with a sickly green glow to match, black liquid covered the balcony where he observed the fight earlier…

[Jing]: The only thing worse than aliens squatting in your home is one with no damn respect for history.

Jing: Die you squatting harlot!

The wizard screamed and flailed as her solar shielding was depleted in three bursts of the shrapnel launcher… Jing aimed the gun a little higher and pulled the trigger again… no superheated metal chunks flew out…

Jing: Aw… not now…

The wizard noted its chance and cast a murky thick black fog on Jing… he coughed and sputtered immediately… going down on all fours and dropping the pilfered Fallen weapon… his eyes watered… and he felt something tearing in his throat as he coughed the poisonous air… his shields began to flicker as the wizard barraged him with Arc projectiles… which stopped as his shields failed… the wizard came close as it's poisonous smoky attack faded away… in a swift motion he pushed the Fallen shock blade through what passed for its neck and pulled upwards, cleaving through the head… he felt his blood trickle down his lips…

Jing: Git… out… mah house… Ugh…

The wizard's corpse fell into dust and ether… Jing fell to his knees… his lungs burned and felt like they were splintered with shrapnel… and the sensation was spreading throughout his body… he coughed and red splattered the floor…

Ghost: Are you alright?

Jing: I'll… I'm fine… just give me… a moment… *cough*

He got back on his feet, ignoring the pain and black tendrils poking and creeping the edge of his vision as he got the worst case of lightheadedness ever… and cut the wires going into the icebreaker with his shock blade… he hefted the Exotic weapon and forced himself to walk to the balcony... and aimed at the bulky walker… he pulled his helmet off as breathing difficulties increased… using the balcony rail as a support for the weapon…

Ghost: You're… do you have any relatives in the city? Tell me what to do, I'll… what do I get you to do when I raise you back up… you know?

Jing: I'll… make it.

He thought about mouthing a bad-ass premortem one-liner to the two warring alien races who had just ruined his life in one night, but it was becoming too painful to speak now… so he pulled the trigger once… to no visible effect except for fallen looking for where the blast came from… a second time… some identified him, but there was a slight orange welt on the metal of the simple AI driven vehicle… a third shot, the welt deepened in intensity and expanded… he pulled the trigger again, ignoring the wire rifles now probably being trained on him… fifth trigger pull… a wire rifle shot thudded into his shoulder, but his shielding held… 6… a small smoke trail was visible from where the repeated shots had happened… 7th time was the charm… there was a beautiful bright blue flash which enveloped the two walkers next to what he had just blown up… and the blast seemed to smash into the hive seeder as well…

He sighed and released the overheating gun… his fingers feeling burnt from handling it despite the protection his suit offered… then it whined loudly and was the second bright flash he experienced in quick succession… he barely threw himself clear… the world swam about him as the poison did it's work… and he couldn't feel his legs anymore…

Ghost: Jing… please, can you hear me? Your legs… they're burnt and…

He barely managed to nod… he could see three ghosts floating above him with black surrounding his field of vision…

Ghost: You did it… the Fallen are in retreat… and the hive seeder… well, most of it is gone… and it's not glowing anymore…

He felt like acid was spreading throughout his body… but spoke in a calm, accepting tone despite the hemorrhage in his lungs… if he didn't die to hive poison he could well drown in his own lung fluid…

Jing: Good… you'll have your guardian soon enough…

Ghost: I want to make this offer to you again… while you still have that little time to take it… if you die and I raise you… that guardian won't have the same reverence for old world technology and great men… but… if you say yes now… maybe… you can bring the best of both worlds… and yourself… as you… to the city, as well as the story of a human who… truly, if he was any better, he'd be a guardian.

Jing's vision swam in and out of focus… he coughed… he was ready to die… he wasn't afraid… there was much he had never done in life, but dying with unrealized aspirations was a common human thing anyway… the little robot floating in front of him seemed very sad though, almost as if she wanted to cry.

Jing: If I say yes… will it hurt a lot?

Ghost: The way you are now… I can't tell or make promises…

Jing: If I said no, you'd just do funny things to my corpse… instead of burying me… anyway…

The ghost spread the spikes of its shell out immediately, revealing the black ball within and spinned, glowing brightly with blue trails or energy orbiting it… Jing got back up, and he had never felt better…

J Ghost: I didn't give you the usual kit we ghosts can fabricate… because what you have would probably work better… so I just fixed it up as best I could… it's not top of the line tower stuff, but… it's something considering how kit bashed and scavenged your gear is…

Jing: You know, I didn't exactly say yes…

J Ghost: Too late, we're stuck with each other now, by the way, I kept your rifle… take it… I'll be able to help you find ammo for it now…

Jing cradled his long serving trusty SAR 21 as four dregs, 2 vandals and one captain stormed into the room… he picked up the Ice Breaker and fired on the dreg's head… it blew up… the explosion finishing off the other three…

The vandals charged… barring shock blades… he scored a headshot on one and thrust his palm out at the other, igniting both into a floating corpse dispersing into embers… he hurled his first own solar grenade onto the remaining captain and peppered it with a burst from the SAR 21… ether spouted from the neck into where a captain's head used to be… he turned around and watched the sun rise for the first in a long time, now unafraid of any alien spotting him and starting a fight…

Later that day, the evening…

J Ghost: Most guardians would kill to be in your position, waking up with an exotic ready to use out the gate… once they know what Ice Breaker is and does…

Jing: I don't know, that thing did help kill me also…

J Ghost: You spent most of the day restoring that Cabal shield carving of yours… when we could have gone to the eastern spaceport or airport to look for a ship! Most important thing is for a guardian to have a serviceable one…

Jing: Fallen have probably long picked the place clean…

He folded down the rear seats of a convertible variant Lamborghini Aventador and made just enough space to stuff the now restored work of art of a Phalanx shield in the rear… with several bookshelves worth of his notes, on history, technology… experiences… and datalogs. Up above his former apartment burned intensely… though he was sure he had evacuated everything of value. The customized auto cannons and Pike weapons checked out on the vehicle… he was ready to go… he fired the pike cannons… they sounded powerful as he blew up his old Pike collection.

J Ghost: Maybe I should have granted your wish to die…

Jing: Well, too late… you're stuck with me now…Jeanie.

J Ghost: Jeanie?

Jing: Yeah, you're my ghost now right? Won't keep calling you "ghost"… by the way, you come with GPS guidance to the last city?


	18. A Thanonaut's Day

**A Thanonaut's day**

Sans: This chapter contains a loving reference to Patrick Casey's Poopy Reviews series, showing you the authentic user experience of exotic Destiny weapons.

Eleanor Lamb: Two chapters ago I got a cameo… wait what? I didn't do THAT!

Anna Dewitt/Elizabeth: Chill out, it's a reference to constants and variables… the multiverse… and that we'll probably cameo later, somewhere… oh yeah we lifted something from Reddit about Xur selling Red Death next to the vanguard…

Eleanor Lamb: I think that's a paraphrase because he did it from memory because he couldn't find the exact source and place, Beth…

Sans: Ladies, not that I mind people working extra hard at what I'm supposed to say but this crossover isn't supposed to involve you both.

Oryx, The Taken King roared and started his Doxology spell… Jing was the first to be pulled into the dimension, he pulled out Bolt Caster immediately…sending a lightning storm flying at the Echo of Oryx in the white edges of his vision.

Jing: I know about you… I know about your people, the Osmium court, Aurash! Not everything, but enough…

The shade of Oryx regarded him for a moment then roared and teleported 90 degrees to his right… he kept the reforged sword and pulled out his 1000 Yard stare… and started sniping the echo in the head as… this was the third one…

Jing: It's a real shame… in a different universe where things were perhaps… just one missing atom's worth different… we might have been good friends…

Artanis-3 was teleported in at this point and pulled out his Antimony XVI to join in the sniping… shortly followed by Kerrigan… as the echo bellowed and prepared to charge… they jumped away while Jing used the Arc forged guard of Bolt Caster to weather the blow. Karina was warpped in by Oryx behind him and joined in with a super massive vortex from her Dark Drinker… He got a good look at the Echo's face and in those inhuman alien eyes, he saw something tragic…

Jing: Good lord… you don't even know what you're fighting us for anymore do you… you want to lose… you actually want to die… or am I wrong?

Raynor was teleported in by this point and fired a Celestial nighthawk boosted gun, destroying the echo and starting the failure of the Doxology assault…

Raynor: You mind not talking to the big evil boss? We're a long way from home, surrounded by hostile aliens…

They were back outside again… Oryx's massive form dominating their field of view as a few taken thralls attempted to claw and scratch at them.

Harley: Awww… I just used a three of coins!

Kerrigan: You got lucky he somehow decided to teleport you in there just now when you had nearly fallen of the edge of this ship trying to punch the thrall in the center…

Harley: Yeah I don't really know what happened back there either…

Artanis-3: He's moving again, prepare and to your positions… Karina! I shall bless us with the astral winds, sharpen our weapons!

Kerrigan and Jing made the platform where Oryx was about to slam his fist into…

Jing: I pity the guy a bit, we killed his son, daughter in law, adopted son, son's fanboy, daughters… pastor, and pet turtle…

Kerrigan: Don't lose your resolve now, remember, it's survival we are struggling for here… You want me to jump instead?

Jing: I'll do it.

He leapt up as Oryx lifted his fist once more, puzzled by how the attacks were being repeated when they couldn't work… as the pain from being torn between dimensions washed over him for an instant… either Oryx didn't have his mind anymore or was orchestrating his own death at their hands… that was what he pondered as he leapt up… below him Kerrigan chucked a Nova bomb at the first ogre while Karina and Artanis-3 peppered it with weapons of light enhanced rocket launchers and sniper rifles… leaving the usual black glowing ball of twisted corrupted light…

He continued collecting what he believed were the bait stars he read of from the deciphered calcified fragments as his world was tinged a blurry grey…. Leaping off platforms he was sure appeared just as ghostly to his teammates as he did. Below another Light Eater ogre bellowed as Harley, Artanis and Karina blasted it into oblivion while it was tethered by a Nightstalker's arrow…

He wondered about these things… and how Harley had chanced upon one earlier in a chasm filled his what seemed like a room full of thrusting phallic sculptures just after Golgoroth fell… and she had been knocked by that into the opposite of that hall… though her ghost remained in a good position for resurrection… despite the seriousness of their task, the fire team had a good laugh together at her expense… below the third ogre fell to Raynor's trip mine, Karina's Sleeper Simulant and Artanis-3's Ash Factory…

Jing: I have it!

Raynor, Harley and Kerrigan began to dart for the center as he landed while the final ogre fell… the Vessel of Oryx stepped out of the tombship where he had been waiting… and he stole the brand… oddly familiar to a rift game in feeling somehow… The knight continued past him, as he hacked away at it with his blade, ending with an electrical storm from Bolt Caster to finish it off… he made it to the center to share the brand of immortality with his fireteam as both Wards of Dawn expired their duration…

Raynor: Light him up!

Guns and sniper rifles thundered away as Oryx summoned the darkness for the fourth and final time… he reeled and leaned on his ship's edge…

Artanis-3: Detonate my brothers and sisters! Detonate now!

He remained beside Karina and they continued blasting Oryx with the strongest available ammunition they still had as the others in the fireteam went to channel the corrupted light for the final time… He wondered what was the black spew being shot out of Oryx gaping chest maw… long devoured light? His worm parasite bleeding? Or the darkness itself… the fire team returned and 4 more weapons joined the pair in discharging punishment at the Hive God-king… as the corrupted lights exploded with such force that his world was as bright as day… Oryx reeled and lost his grip on the ship's edge…

Raynor: Is that it?

Artanis-3: Well done… we are…

Oryx appeared at the front again, Jing and Karina were the only ones who noticed… Oryx raised his hands…

Jing: Shit! Look out!

[Jing]: Switch the rocket launcher with the sword, Do it… then helmet me with light beyond nemesis, I don't care what exotic we switch out of!

[J Ghost]: Yes boss, done…

He blew himself up by aiming the rocket at his feet as Oryx clapped… the darkness washed over all present… killing them…

[J Ghost]: Seriously? This is how we end?

[Jing]: Oh, I have my super…

[Oryx]: So ends the last hope of the light…

Jing clenched both of his fists and knitted himself back together with solar fire… he revived Karina immediately as Oryx watched his enemies… get back on their feet and charged towards him as he prepared to attack again, but this time he was being barraged in his chest by weapons of light augmented lasers, sniper bullets and rifle rounds…

The Taken king screamed and roared as he was overwhelmed… his body cracking all over with a bright white light flashing… he lost hold of the platform and fell away towards Saturn, exploding spectacularly several times as his body failed… spikes somehow appearing all over the corpse… Jing stared at the corpse of what was once a bane of so many living things in the universe float lifelessly away towards Saturn… thinking about what had just transpired…

Behind him, Kerrigan and Raynor embraced and kissed or tried to, they bumped helmets into each other… Artanis-3 gave a dignified nod and crossed his arms as Harley cartwheeled and danced around the place with some silly sing-song voice… he began to feel lost and drawn deep into something pulling in his mind… afore him stood Oryx… no, this was proto-Oryx… Aurash, perhaps… or was it the Auryx phase?

[Aurash]: Well done…

[Jing]: The worm within… it was eating you away, wasn't it?

The form before him became taller and he was now looking upon Oryx… before he took himself with his dreaded Taken power… wings present… a hybrid of wizard and knight…

[Oryx]: Use these I leave in my wake well…

He knew Oryx was pointing to Bolt Caster sheathed on his back… formerly it had been Will Breaker… Oryx's sword… and the sword logic still dwelled in the blade as it was forcefully wrested away from allegiance… to allegiance…

[Jing]: What is this, why are you…

[Oryx]: My work, is ended… as you all have my son… I have been slain in my own throne world… I am… no more…

[Jing]: So why are we speaking…

[Oryx]: You have all proven yourselves stronger than me, by my own laws… so… let me indulge what you said earlier… good friend… in a better time and less cruel universe perhaps…

Oryx opened his palm… showing Calcified fragments… he hesitantly took them and tucked them into the pockets of his robe… he felt their temperature dropping.

[Oryx]: Tell me why you think I fell, and be truthful, I must know and learn… if we truly could have been good friends… share with me this.

[Jing]:… A father's fury, in the place of a king's measured hand… or were you hoping to finally prey on the dormant Traveler? You were bound to be curious… this was… vengeance, no?

Oryx laughed… loudly and hauntingly… until it rang in his ears… but it was sincere somehow… one of genuine amusement at such an obvious flaw he should have known better about… once again, the nature of the sky had caused the undoing of something… even one so intimate with the deep such as he… love was indeed so entwined with violence…

[Oryx]: Well played… be wary of the day when something endeavors to learn the same answer of you.

Oryx came for a moment and sat beside him, now resembling Aurash in form once again…

[Jing]: It's tragic… do you regret anything at all?

The form shifted back into Oryx… who no longer look at him as he spoke…

[Oryx]: I do, or… I did… but such things are for the sky now… but I am one of the deep…

[Jing]: You can hate us for killing your… being involved in killing your pretty much whole family, really, I'd understand reason takes a backseat to emotion…

[Oryx]: And that is why I shall not indulge those… instead…

Oryx handed him a sphere… within, rings whirled in strange Hadium loops with energy spiraling around… there was an inky blackness in the very middle of the thing… that reminded him of the battle in the black garden so long ago…

[Jing]: What is this, why are you giving it to me?

[Oryx]: I have made preparations. If I am defeated, I know it will be because my understanding of the universe was incomplete. I failed to anticipate some strategy, some nemesis. If I am defeated, I know that I will fall to something mighty. Something that craves might, something that loves what I love, which is the Deep, a principle and a power, the versatile, protean need to adapt and endure, to reach out and shape the universe entirely for that purpose, to mutate and redesign and test and iterate so that it can prevail, can seize existence and hold it, certain that this is everything, that there is nothing to life except living. And it has two faces, yet it is one shape. One face is the objective, which is obvious, and the other face is that will to sacrifice things and ideas for a single mission, the mission of becoming the shape, a shape that will not relent, the utter commitment to survival, to draw the right sword and choose where to cut: to allow this hunger to become your weapon. So I will prepare a book, which is a map to a weapon. And my vanquisher will read that book, seeking the weapon, and they will come to understand me, where I have been and where I was going. And then they will take up my weapon, and they will use it, they will use that weapon, which is all that I am. And armed thus with my past, and my future, and my present (which is a weapon, a weapon that takes whatever is available, a weapon bound to malice), they will mantle me, Oryx, the Taken King. They will become me and I will become them, each of us defeating the other, correcting the other, alloying ourselves into one omnipotent philosophy. Thus I will live forever. I'll make sure.

[Jing]: So this is the meaning of our friendship…

[Oryx]: You're a god yourself, now. You've consecrated yourself. Emulate me. Use your power to learn. There are worse things to practice being…

[Jing]: What if I meet Taox?

[Oryx]: Then do me a favor with all that I am, now in your hands.

Karina: Beloved? Beloved?

He was back on the dreadnought… Oryx's corpse still drifting away slowly in view… he looked at his hands… there was that object Oryx had given him… the rings whirled while the voice inside whispered in Hive language and one line…

"Oh slayer mine…"

Raynor: Mother of God… Kerrigan nearly threw a Nova bomb on you… where'd you get that cursed thrall helmet from?

Artanis-3: Indeed, come rejoice in the spoils of war we have earned!

Jing: turned around slowly and walked as Karina loomed over him, her hand still gently on his back…

Karina: Beloved… what's that… where'd you get it and that helmet?

Jing: It's one of the grizzly trophies Eris asked me to collect… what I'm more afraid of is Oryx… gave it to me. I think Oryx… crowned me with this himself…

He didn't say any more than that… part of him wanted to throw the thing off the edge of the ship… yet it would feel disrespectful to an opponent he had regarded as worthy… and he wanted to destroy it… but as a Warlock… there was clearly much to learn from it… Crota had been hectic, but was nowhere near as intelligent or competent an opponent… what he knew of the Vex also made him disrespect Atheon… Skolas he respected… but that was an opponent who went down to 3 guardians instead of 6… had the ambition and drive, but not quite the power…

Karina: Hey… if you're thinking about Osiris… Toland… or Dredgen Yor… don't worry too much… I know you, and I know that you know better than them… trust me on this… regarding that thing…

Jing: I guess you're right…

He surveyed the chest that had appeared and opened, waited for the green flames to leave the lid… he would turn the artifact in his hands over to Eris Morn or Ikora Ray first thing on arriving back to the tower…

Jing woke up on his bed back in the city… Karina was no longer sleeping by his side, though a note was left on her pillow besides some strands of blue hair…

"Beloved, you fell asleep at your desk again in the helmet… which I took off… I don't have anything today so I went to work to fill in for you and let you sleep in… if you're seeing this, that meeting with Banshee-44 hasn't happened yet, otherwise I'd be waking you instead… I know the ins and outs of the rest of today's itinerary for you, so don't worry, there won't be any problems… unless you don't get here in time.

PS, I saw Xur's logo on the pillar, but you'll have to find where he is yourself."

His ghost floated in and fused into his body as he set the note down…

J Ghost: Quite the girl, taller than Saladin and Shaxx, scares the crap out of anyone around her who doesn't know better, can carry you from the desk to bed, get your helmet off, and not wake you… also has every Osiris emblem so far.

Jing: Oh I know how lucky I am… got two good women in my life…

J Ghost: As an inorganic lifeform… my voice is only aesthetic… I technically am gender neutral, perhaps I should switch it up?

Jing: I thought we outgrew getting under each other's skin ever since the long drive here…

J Ghost: We did, but it doesn't stop being fun… what'll it be?

Jing: Sunbreakers, no helmet for now… Barkhan Dune everything else… we got enough coins?

J Ghost: Too many, it's been relatively peaceful sans that little skirmish with Malok… one of his killers whom you and Harley brought to the lighthouse yesterday… he wants to meet with us after we're done with everything… that's what I replied to his ghost anyway.

Jing: Heh, Noble B312… good titan… almost like an Artanis-3 who doesn't have to show off his glorious speech making ability every time he opens his mouth…

J Ghost: I'll say… you were dreaming of that time on the Dreadnought again weren't you… the parts to make that… weapon…

Jing: Oh shit, Eris Morn is still gonna ask me to take that damn thing she threw together, isn't she? Wish we didn't take her ship when Cayde-6 made us do that thing… I liked it better when I didn't need to pass her every time I went to meet the crucible and vanguard commanders… Xur better not be in there with them…

He went to the armory he shared with Karina… well, it wasn't just an armory, it was parading trophy room of their exploits in battle… he paused a moment near her compilation of exotic boots and felt a tinge of jealousy and inadequacy… everytime he had an exotic boot engram he handed it to her by default because there was no hope of a warlock's exotic footwear set popping out from it no matter how effective Cayde-6's long past threat to Master Rahool remained… and also because her feet dwarfed his, but that was no surprise, the woman was head and shoulders taller than him…

J Ghost: Well it's not such a bad thing that she's the titan and you're the warlock here… I'd imagine she wouldn't be immune to the stereotypical human female behavior regarding footwear…

Jing: Or that'd it'd be weird to call myself a Titan next to a warlock that big and tall…

J Ghost: I was speaking with your sizes switched in mind as well… you going to take it with you?

Jing: Have to… this trend of stupid gun perks to cover up shoddy workmanship by the foundries has to end…

He opened a case which contained a pulse rifle he cherished a lot… The Messenger Adept variant… there was a pair of post-it's on the case, one he written, "Arc… if only it was Solar or Void…" she had replied, "Just remember the skill, effort and tenacity you put into getting it and be grateful it wasn't something else." On a post-it below his.

Jing: Nothing better than some Quality handiwork by Osiris' people to shake up their thinking and complacency…

He went to a far less descript shelf which contained several copies of Spare Change.25 and Lyudmila-D… all of which had some variations in perks and parts but never quite performed in a manner that satisfied him as much The Messenger… or the earlier variant of Hopscotch Pilgrim he regretted not holding onto… current ones didn't cut it.

J Ghost: Get them all?

Paul: Well, diversify the perks, no repeats… and… pack Bad Juju, No Time To Explain or The Stranger's Rifle… keep one last slot free… I'm going to see Xur for that…

J Ghost: I envy Karina's ghost… her guardian isn't as brilliant as you, but much less lazy… she actually buckles her own armor you know…

Paul: You should see her switching to Alpha Lupi when needing a revive then… oh and dismantle that Three Little Words, will you? It's got the worst stability of the bunch…

He took a final look at the other wall, they shared the same shelf as a couple… a Vex Mythoclast… The crux of Crota… Several guns from the vault of glass and Crota's throne world… prized pieces from the vanguard or crucible… his eyes fell on the Queens Wrath equipment… Karina had time to get those, he never got the chance… Iron Banner armor across time and the ages… it was a magnificent wall of prizes and spoils of war, each all telling a story, which was more grandiose if it had a greater case or plaque… and at the end, mounted high was that Phalanx shield he carved and painted… He remembered having trouble lifting it up and Karina came in, did it one handed while he welded its suspension to the wall. It was time for work now though… he unhooked the Evergreen II.I he had kept since the era Crota was considered dangerous… he looked around… and spotted his Theosyion Vibrissae… the tentacles still twitched, and flowed… the only armor of theirs in a trophy case… Time for work.

The tower… Jing wasn't happy, he searched the hanger, the bar under the hanger, the speaker's area and the door in front of Eva Levante… Xur was either in the crucible section or with the vanguard… he was stuck on bad now, and it could get worse… bad because he had to interact with Eris Morn, which he dreaded… and it could get worse since he knew what Xur brought from gossiping guardians in the tower now… at least Banshee was still at his desk, so he had time…

He sauntered down the stairs, missing the era this place was empty of Eris Morn and her possessions… he didn't hate the woman… but if anything her mannerisms had worn on him and he had gone from feeling sorry for her and trying to understand to working with her out of tired necessity… and right now though… he didn't know what he dreaded more, talking to her, or what he knew she had been waiting for him with… he wondered if Eris knew of his change in demeanor to her… He hadn't been rude like Cayde-6 or dismissive… he still remained polite but didn't quite want to talk to her as much.

Eris Morn: Guardian, I have sent for you many times… but I would understand if you do not want this thing we have wrought together…

Jing sighed… she couldn't see him, but she had developed alternative sensory to compensate for it rather effectively.

Jing: Eris… do you think we are going too far in bringing forth such a thing to bear?

Eris Morn:… Be that as it may, it calls for you… your friend… and all the others who partook in that team of 6 that day… it… or he… has shown disdain for me being the one putting the weapon together…

Jing: Alright, I'll indulge a talk with him, but I'm not taking this thing.

[Oryx]: Finally, I see you again, and relish the promise locked within us both should you take this…

[Jing]: You know I won't…

[Oryx]: Do you fear yourself when wielding power?

[Jing]: Power isn't enough, it must be molded and shaped through thought and reason… power for powers sake doesn't guarantee that final shape you seek…

[Oryx]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha! I would dismiss that as platitude of the sky… yet you have bested me, so that alone is the merit in your actions… a shame you would not claim my mantle…

[Jing]: Maybe one of those with me would… you don't mind do you?

[Oryx]: Then endeavor to see it done… already you took my heir and buried Malok and Alakhul… that you would leave such a thing to linger and languish?

[Jing]:…

[Oryx]: I thought on what you called me, a hypocrite, you are not wrong, I drew power from the bargain with the Worms of the deep, then the deep itself… then by your logic of deserved strength… doesn't that make you a truly worthy taken king unlike myself? All six of you… but you, I fought with and knew the most… you, I trust the greatest… You would have a power that's truly your own… not drawn from a dormant Traveler's final breath…

[Jing]: I never cared for power… it brings… unwanted burdens that plague my means of existing… even being raised as a Guardian… was not truly what I wanted… in that one instant of weakness… well, look where we both are now…though what I did with it… I suppose I'm much happier than you…

[Oryx]: Comfort and Joy are lies of the sky… but do not think me ignorant in my fury for my son… when you kept repeatedly defying my attempts to end you… I looked into what we knew of you… we really are so very alike.

[Jing]: Oh, that time one of your wizards came to my house… heh… yes, that was my equivalent of your being "Aurash".

Eris Morn: Still refusing it?

Jing: I'd better… in fact, that should be where we put Toland's Journal after we made Bad JuJu from information in it's pages… I'd say have a good day, but then you'd… not let yourself have one… later Eris… and don't mock him in there… you did start this by sending us after his son… Vengeance is a wheel that turns ever faster, cycles upon cycles… Killing his son was good for the city, but was also your revenge… and now he came for his son and failed… who comes next, I wonder…

He was glad she didn't reply and seemed to slink into contemplation at his parting words… from a human stand point, the Hive would be devastated as hell, he didn't partake personally in everything, but their kill tally included the whole damn Court of Oryx, Alak'Hul the Darkblade, Malok… Oryx's War Priest… Apex Ogre Golgoroth… Oryx's daughters (a little pending on this, they might have had their own thrown worlds to flee to in the Ascendant realm), and in the era where Crota was the big threat who turned out to be a little overblown… Omnigul, Sardon… and the main catalyst for the Taken war… Crota himself… Though Crota wasn't put down by him directly… he supplied the supporting fire to make the monster of Luna kneel…

He broke his train of thought happily when he spotted Xur… and made his way over, glad that the Vanguard was absent for now except Cayde-6… It really was a peaceful time if Zavala could conduct a crochet course for Titans… now to part with some strange coins.

Jing: Hey brah… you got that red?

Xur: Depends… if you have the coins…

Jing: Sure do now…

Xur: Hold… here comes 12…

Jing: Half of that actually…

Cayde-6 came over, seemingly jovial, though Jing could tell the Hunter mentor wanted nothing more than to break the desk jockey role he had forced himself to take up… but then he got along with them all, it would just make buying Red Death a little complicated for now.

Cayde-6: Hey guardian! Doing some shopping I see…

Jing: Yes sir… gotta… buy some Heavy ammo and… turn it in… I think Dead Orbit has had enough fleet help from me… gonna… give Hideo the goods.

Cayde-6: Alright, and nice to see you here again too tentacles, how's business?

Xur: My will, is not my own.

Cayde-6: Errr… alright, you got a boss pleased with your sales or something?

Xur: My will, is not my own.

Cayde-6: Don't you say anything else?

Xur: My will, is not my own.

Cayde-6 turned around and slowly walked back to his desk far less enthusiastic… muttering beneath his breath.

[Cayde-6]: Tentacle faced dipshit from Eris' wormhole…

Xur: Only take, what you understand… Use it, for your happiness.

Jing: You sure it's a really good idea to sell something we're supposed to destroy on sight as policy, right in the hall?

Xur: That thing is yours now, not the nine's.

As Jing returned into the sunlight from the stairs…

J-Ghost: Cayde's sent a message… "I know what you're up to, what you bought and what you plan to do with it. Don't think Ikora and Zavala being away was a coincidence… Banshee told me you wanted to meet with foundry representatives… Go give'em a piece of your pulse rifle loving mind." Reply?

Jing smirked playfully.

Jing: "I am merely a trash collector. PS, tell Ikora she missed her shotgun again."

The weapons test lab… Jing remembered working on Hard Light here… and being shot by varying stages of developments on the thing… sadly it was a mostly meaningless gesture, Omolon did not continue with the polymer rounds but went into liquid ammo… Karina was here, and he'd need to find a way to make it up to his lover since she took one for him as she showcased 3D printed weapons to the so called "Taken tots" and "Kinderguardians".

Karina: Hey love!

As she turned around to address him one of the newer guardians picked up a Hereafter.

Hunter: This is hereafter, you can crouch and zoom in more on shitty polygons…

He switched from the screen to Karina's butt in scoping.

Hunter: Or, you can zoom in on… dat ass.

The other guardians here chuckled in a perverted manner… Karina didn't care too much, she had a body that demanded attention with its sheer physical size already… though she was certainly more attractive than one would expect when she took her helmet off… Jing however, didn't appreciate the sniper glint he saw from the Hereafter's scope and switched himself to Voidwalker… he leapt over Karina and blinked in front of the errant guardian.

Jing: This invective says it's supposed to regenerate ammo, but it never really does… oh, there it goes…

He chambered the rounds in and fired a full auto volley after placing the barrel of to the side of the offending guardian's head… they got the message and left… said guardian having lost his hearing for the moment, and the others saw the practice target behind get shot repeatedly in the groin until that area was molten then blown away with a glowing orange outline dripping liquid metal.

Karina: Harsh showcase…

Jing: Not my fault they lost focus on what they are here for… thanks for filling in for me…

She came over and he had to look up at her again…

Karina: You're welcome.

She picked him up off the floor effortlessly for a kiss.

Karina: Mind if I hang around for your weapon demonstration/rant at city gun makers?

Jing: You're definitely improving the ambience… ah well, you shoot them while I talk then, take these… Lyudmilas and Spare change… with their… crap quality when there's no counterbalance… Ha! Lyudmila! Bloody insult to the namesake of the gun, I'm gonna have a field day.

Karina: What about the exotics?

Jing: We're talking about high impact to these guys, those… well… maybe they'll be necessary, maybe they won't.

He heard the door open again and reconfigured the lab's targets as simple shooting range scoreboards, albeit in the shape of a guardian, a Cabal Phalanx, a Hive Knight, a Fallen servitor… and a Vex Hydra…

Banshee-44: We're here… well, do your thing…

Jing: Get them all to the waiting room, I'll start with the Suros people…

Banshee-44: Just remember, it ain't the gun's fault… ever…

Jing: This is where we disagree then… no offense to you, I know you do your best, but some of the things these guys have the cheek to sell via your booth endanger those who use them due to sheer lacking quality.

The Suros representatives, clad in white suits with red markings and ties came forward as Karina and Banshee-44 ushered the others away… Jing clasped his hands together.

Jing: Alright… Suros, love you guys, you know what's important… customization, and you emphasize it in the correct way, nearly no complaints from anybody whose used your stuff in my surveys and tests, your guns look good, feel good and shoot good.

Suros Executive: That's it? Based on your reputation, I thought we'd be hearing more than compliments…

Jing: I do, but it's not for you… nice job challenging Crux Lomar in the rocket launcher feel by the way, they're unmatched there, I miss more perk options, but it's good to have an alternative choice to Vanguard models and hoping you get an Ash Factory or one of the queen's Nightmares… and just between us, don't worry about rocket launcher stability anymore ok? Doesn't matter to a guardian.

Suros Executive: Thank you, we shall continue to live up to your expectations…

Jing: Oh one more thing, I love PDX 41 and PDX 45 series, DIS 43 and DIS 47, all great as well, same for the ARIs… could you all look into maybe making a PDX 37? High impact type? Everybody here seems very bad at it except you guys lately.

The Suros team shared a laugh with him before they left… Jing felt The Messenger(Adept) on his back get a little heavier… he placed it on the desk besides the Evergreen II.I

Karina: Nothing for me to shoot in front of them?

Jing: We'll get there…

Banshee-44 brought the Omolon team with him this time, wearing sleek black suit with white ties, their emblems sewn onto their pockets in a deep blue.

Banshee-44: By the way, Tex Machina wants in as well…

Jing: Tell them to do some f-screwing in an offwards direction after that rigged Chaperone competition. I made the gun available to everyone via the vanguard 3d printer for a very good reason… And that's, the last word.

Karina: Ha ha ha… instead of a simple get lost you just had to go poetic and add a pun in at the end…

Jing: Really? I can't take off my pants here at work as a consummate professional so let me show you what I think of Tex Machina.

He grabbed a Hand cannon that had been sitting on the desk for months and flourished it before gripping.

Jing: Here's The First Curse, look at it spin like it thinks it's all good and shit, don't even do any damage.

He shot at one of the targets, leaving a smoking bullet hole… Karina laughed together with Banshee-44. The Omolon team struggled to remain dignified with such a hysterically blatant bashing of one of their most ill-reputed competitors.

Jing: Refills the mag once, Ha! You want to clear weak aliens, you go Bad Juju.

Karina took this moment to show off the skull fronted rifle's abstract properties by racking target boards repeatedly… she shot far more rounds out than the clip could have contained and continued…

Jing: You wanna drill a badass boss alien, we have No Time To Explain…

Karina switched weapons and called down a target board of Valus Maul'ual, which she peppered repeatedly in the head… far more than 24 bullets were fired, she then took out the magazine to show the clip was somehow still full to the Omolon team, they applauded.

Omolon Executive: We are ready for any feedback you have to offer, sir… it's been a long history of cooperation between us.

Jing: Keep making those Thesan FR4 type series, you've got something right that the rest of the city doesn't… cease production of the Uzume RR4 series, it's far inferior to the Eirene RR4… Love the Scouts and Hand cannons too… especially the older Hung Jury variant that came out from Dead Orbit. Are you all looking at LMGs, Autos and Pulses?

Omolon Executive: Well, no, our current projectile science makes it…

Jing: So what did I let myself get repeatedly shot at by Hard Light prototypes for?

Omolon Executive:…

Jing broke the uncomfortable silence… and pulled out the Tlaloc… he knew drilling the executive now wouldn't achieve much, and perhaps there was research they were not sharing at the moment, all fine… competition in the weapons field led to innovations and better weapons.

Jing: Well, never mind… maybe something might come of it someday… try making this thing usable by Titans and Hunters as well, it's very good so far… I love it, and consider making a high impact pulse like it even…

Omolon Executive: Thank you, we look forward to future developments together with you…

Jing: Whose next?

Banshee-44 put down a sack, Karina opened it... she found a copy of every Hakke gun within…

Karina: It's full of every Hakke gun type…

Banshee-44: I figured you'd really want to let them have it.

Jing's eyes narrowed, this was the gun company that frustrated him the most besides the Crucible and Vanguard armory… Tex Machina he simply boycotted by default.

Jing: You're a good man Banshee, but bring the other group in first… no, you know what, bring them both in together.

Karina: Just remember, you want them to make better guns, not to yell at them pointlessly.

Jing: Yeah, because you care… you let yourself get pissed… can be stupid at times… Tex Machina I can just choose to not give a flying f-

He stopped himself as Banshee-44 fetched the city and Hakke representatives over at last…

Jing: I have quite the list of grievances with you all. I'll start with your individual issues… I don't know who was in charge that caused the guns Ronnie is selling to be made with such terrible perk combinations, and I don't care… because you also are selling terrible base guns… the most horrible being the Diluvian 10/4X! How did you make a gun that kicks downwards recoil wise? I am baffled, and all of you gun companies not stepping into that field giving the city's makers a complacency monopoly!

City Foundry Executive: Now see, we can offer a better variant if you…

Jing: I, am not finished… now you Hakke clowns better listen to this… because you and the foundry may try to cover your slip ups, but I am onto all of them… your current apple of discord sale version might look decent on paper, but I was a victim of buying the earlier variant with full auto, and I am not happy when counterbalance is not on these guns… Karina, show them why.

Karina picked up a Lyudmila D and fired a few bursts from it…

Hakke Executive: Now sir, that's a Lyudmila D and not the apple of Discord or our sister Herja series and…

Jing: Oh, Good! Your eyes and brain are clearly functioning at a basic level, I had no other way to make sure... then take a good damn look at that bullet grouping, Karina is one of the finest Titans in the city, and even she can't stop the damn left side drift on this shit without a very specific set of perks or gun features… tell you what, why don't you, take one of these and show me how it's done… Donkey!

He grabbed another Lyudmila-D, and shoved it into the executive's hands… grabbing him towards the firing booth…

Jing: Go on! Do it! Maybe we guardians are doing something wrong, go on!

Hakke executive: Now sir… I am not a soldier or one of the assembly line…

Jing: DO IT!

Void energy flashed into his eyes for a moment… the executive took his best aim at the servitor target and fired… he promptly fell over from the recoil, the gun clattered on the ground and discharged another burst, which Karina had stepped over to take, preventing it from hitting the demonstration viewers… she put her fingers in between her lips and pulled one bullet covered in bite marks out from her mouth as the hole it had made in her cheek slowly began to knit it's flesh back.

Jing: That variant… had hand laid stock, and counterbalance, a set of mod perks, we guardians practically consider compulsory to even use the gun to any decent success. The best recoil control tools, and you still flew when firing it like you were kicked by a donkey with rabies! You dare bid to issue these things en masse to the fine but still normal troops helping to protect the city?! The fallen will sweep in here, and they'll cut a bloody swathe of dead people because of your lack of quality control and shoddy workmanship will have them shooting into the air from their butts knocked onto the ground by sheer recoil! Get your act together wherever the hell in your assembly line and drawing boards the mistake is!

City Foundry Executive: Now sir, I am sure that our…

Jing: Shut up, I'm not finished with them…

He turned back to the Hakke executive who was gingerly trying to get to his feet and stumbled when Jing refocused his attention…

Jing: You dare name this thing Lyudmila-D, after Liudmyla Mykhailivna Pavlychenko, the most successful female sniper in human history alongside standouts like Ayane Takanome?! Have you no respect or reverence for human history and achievement?! She would turn in her freaking grave over such a damned insult! "The cold sharpshooter's precision of the Häkke Lyudmila-D is a marvel to behold." Ha ha ha… oh where do I start on that… at best with counterbalance and Hand laid stock installed, we guardians just give it "passably usable". You better hope some ghost didn't go raise her back up, because if the guardian that was her discovers her past, she is going to ram these things so far up your main streets that you'll be choking on it! Nevermind your horrible Strongbow, Jingukogo shotguns, or your sniper rifles, the one usable thing about them being barely salvaged by Executor Hideo getting New Monarchy to stitch the Surplus perk onto it so we have an easier time getting ammo with it at least! I don't even want to start on your hand cannons, I've never even been hit by one in the crucible before! Banshee, block their mass issue bid for everything except Arminius-D and Zarinea-D.

Jing took a deep breath and closed his eyes, forcing the purple glow out of it. He gave Karina a "do it." Wave and she picked up a Spare Change.25 and fired… the 3 bullet burst didn't kick as hard as Hakke's but there was still a left side curve…

Jing: Now, the city foundry has shown some quality work before… so rather than yell again, I am going to very simply say, please, produce a High Impact pulse rifle that doesn't make counterbalance mandatory on it. You've done this before with the Saladin commissioned Nirwen's Mercy so just extrapolate that workmanship…

He took the Evergreen II.I and fired three bursts, there were only three visible bullet holes. Karina took out her own copy of The Messenger(Adept) and followed up on his shots… with four bursts… there were still only three visible bullet holes.

Jing: You guys have done it before, please do it again… Because wherever Osiris is making these things, he should not be able to produce better than you all… and Lord Shaxx is too kind trying to cover up for you all by rarely handing Spare Change.25 out because he knows it's a damn disgrace, barring the times he sticks counterbalance on it for us… and you better be quick on that front, or you guys being an actual government backed organization, will know he can do worse than what he did to Tex Machina… and keep making The Saterienne Rapier, Badger CCL, Lord High Fixer, Shadow Price, Grim Citzen III, The Devil You Know series… all those are good and welcome.

Banshee-44: Alright, just one last group left now… Nadir… and Crux-Lomar.

The frightened and cowed weapon making representatives left… the Nadir representatives stood out with their dressing, resembling early 21st century tech startups who made it big in their dressing, though no sign of their logo was anywhere…

Jing: You guys haven't made a damn thing yet, what do you want?

Nadir Executive: Err… we were thinking of… starting on machine guns… since we heard your…

Jing: Ok nevermind, Jeanie!

J-Ghost: Yeah?

Jing: You guys got a data storage?

Nadir: Here…

Jing: Jeanie, beam everything that happened since I got here from the security camera feed and give it to them, it'll be a fine example of what NOT to do.

The Dread Explorer shell clad ghost went up to the camera and tapped the data then came back to write it onto their data storage.

Jing: We're done, next?

The Nadir team left and in came Crux Lomar's representatives…

Jing: Well, I didn't expect Feizel Crux and Victor Lomar themselves…

Feizel Crux: Well, based on what we heard while outside, I'd say it was well worth it. Quite the laugh in fact…

Jing: Ok, anyway I know how you all do business, it's all about rocket launchers with you, you don't make anything else, and you're very good at what you make, nothing Suros churned out can even hope to compete.

Victor Lomar: Thank you, coming from one of the Hive Bane, that means a lot.

Jing: I'll be blunt, when are you all updating the Gjallahorn?

Feizel Crux:… hmmm

Victor Lomar: Unfortunately this, is not as under our control as we'd like it to be…

Feizel Crux: While we were happy to get Truth and Dragons Breath back in all your capable hands… Lord Saladin hasn't quite given us his word on it yet… he has a stake in all of this after all…

Victor Lomar: Gjallahorn isn't just another powerful bazooka by us, I mean it is, but it's also a work of art and a historical tribute to the city's legacy…

Jing: Alright fair enough, guess we're done here, keep up the good boomsticks, will you all?

He waited until Karina was the only one with him…

Jing: I need a drink…

Karina: Why not take one with our last guest?

Jing: I'd sooner be caught making out with you in a Cabal base by Valus Taurac than entertain anybody from Tex…

He calmed down when he recognized Noble B312's black-grey shaded armor… Tex Machina apparently knew better of irking guardians lately. Karina stretched her arm out at the Exo Titan as if a game show host presenting a prize… her words even channeling the tone of one.

Karina: It's the killer of Malok…

Jing: And a fresh new owner of a copy of Bastet's dream… what did Osiris give you from the box?

B312: Doctrine of Passing, counterbalanced… Pariah armor…

Jing: Heh, you better hope Osiris guys don't shoddy up like some gun companies…

B312: What do you mean?

Jing: Get a recording from my ghost.

Ghost: You got it, can I have it?

J Ghost: Go on…

The Vanguard shell ghost accepted an input of data stream from the Dread Explorer shell clad one…

Ghost: I think there was a human chef in early 21st century in the Crpytarchy archives… the footage you just turned over is very familiar to many an episode of his show, Hell's Kitchen…

Karina chuckled, her ghost popped out to join in as well.

Karina: I'll see you later, gonna catch some shut eye and prepare for my job tomorrow…

Jing: Thanks big girl, I owe you…

Karina: I'll be sure to collect on that…

She winked at him before leaving…

Jing: So why're you here? I did help Harley complete the fireteam and get you there…

B312 picked up the No Time To Explain on the table…

B312: The real story behind this…

Jing: She decided to tell you did she?

B312: Yeah…

Jing: …She's out looking for forgiveness nobody can give her but herself now… she works hard, waiting in the Cosmodrome landing area for new guardians to help… she brings people like you through the Trials of Osiris, Karina and me take shifts helping her out on that… and she never stops till you all crack open that chest on Mecury… all in pursuit of a redemption I feel she has long past earned… for a wrong she was long forgiven for… or maybe she's already realized that and is just using this as a way to pass time, cope with… sorry, I'm rambling…

B312: No worries… but… will you tell me?

Jing: I would, but let's go somewhere else… I don't want this going into city archives in anyway… for now at least… and I tend to ramble here because this place brings the worst out of me for "work purposes." Can you imagine one day we just get overrun because of shoddy workmanship in the gun factories?

B312: Where we going?

Jing: Down to the city… I'm going to change into something more civilian first… Its peace time, you might want to get to know who and what you're protecting a bit more… my girl threw herself at the "Know your protectors" Guardian outreach program…

B312: She looks familiar… think I saw her at the Fallen attack yesterday, though I can't quite place it…

Later… seated at quiet bench in a park near the city walls… sun setting… They laughed and got along better than when it was all business trying to win in a series of Trials of Osiris games…

B312: Which of these races we war with do you respect the most?

Jing: The Cabal… simple, pure tactical ingenuity and gritted determination, no space necromancy like the Hive, no infecting the body of history like the Vex… no reality breaking powers like the Taken… somewhat the same for the Fallen to a lesser extent… if you want me to tell you this story I want you to know something to keep in the back of your head…

He pulled out a Façade of the Hezen Lords and passed it to B312, the Titan took the raid helmet and regarded it curiously… Jing never threw away the robe that came with it, he loved the look and embroidery…

B312: Tell me…

Jing: This is partially theory but I have seen nothing to disprove it… based on new information on how they met Oryx's ilk… lets treat history and space time as a body… the Vex are like a viral infection trying to subjugate and take over it, and they succeeded to some extent in the distorted pseudo dimension of the Vault of Glass… but they can't do that to real space time which we exist in yet, and hopefully they never will be able to now… there's real history and then there's the blatant signs the Vex are worming their way into it…

B312: Ok, I still follow…

Jing: The Vault of Glass site… predates humanity in our current space time continuity… but the truth is… I think the Vex got jumped up on excitement when they got into Oryx ascendant realm, according to the calcified fragment data… and created that place to copy and emulate the Ascendant realm's properties… in short, its actually younger than us, but because the Vex can go to the past or future as they please, it can predate us…

The mechanical Titan grimaced a bit in thought… but couldn't understand what was being said entirely.

B312: Ok, now I'm having trouble…

Jing: Ok, that body of time and space which I talked about? Let's now treat it as a painting… and if you were the artist who painted everything from the past… to the future… the effect the Vex would have is… you'd suddenly their stuff appearing in all over that painting of yours, and you'd go "Hey wait, I didn't paint that bit like that." But the people in the painting won't know, something or someone outside would…

B312: Ah… ok, I get it, brains a little stretched but…

Jing: Good, Karina got it too… I always told Ikora everybody is intelligent enough…

B312: Maybe she's just sick of Cayde-6 deep down.

They laughed and mixed an Eris Morn joke in there somewhere as they took another swig of Cider and Ale from the bottles with them.

Jing: So here's the important bit about the Vex… they dare to go all over the place in time and space, but they don't dare to change history's truths for fear of paradoxes… whereas due to our nature of wielding the Light, we can alter the course of history and time as we are even though we don't really go to the past or future like they do… and after Atheon fell, they knew that… and made use of it once, Harley told you about the Preadyth bit?

B312: Yeup…

Jing: So, where did Harley leave off?

B312: Apparently the kid went through you… got her and only Karina was left standing…

Jing: Oh… well, you know us guardians and especially Sunsinger Warlocks…

He put his arm around the Exo Titan's shoulders… glad that it was much easier than Karina's for he let her do it to him instead.

B312: What?

Jing: We can be literally too stubborn to die…

B312: So was Malok…

Jing: Oh do you want to know what I've found out about him? He's Oryx's nephew actually and…

B312: Corrupted taken human kid first… and frankly I know enough about him, you shoot him, he changes taken power, shoot some more, his head swells and balloons and he shoots another Taken power at you, shoot even more, it pops… and… then he dies.

Jing: Ah… right… don't judge Harley or us too harshly for this… because… I myself was quite shocked at the depths that kid had sunk to… I'd say I was actually afraid of the potential existing in that manner I saw there and then… I mean it was one thing to study on all the aliens and the guardians fascinated by the darkness but when you see a supposedly normal human kid go like that… you actually, really, don't want to think about it…

B312: She broke down when we rescued a kid that was identical to…

Jing: See what I mean? I hope Karina and my talks about quitting FWC and Lakishimi-2's mad love are getting to her… she needs to forgive herself first… otherwise everyone else's is… meaningless.


	19. This is the way the world ends

**This, is the way the world ends**

Eris Morn: The Taken are not bound by terrestrial constraints…

Cayde-6: Yeah well I'll bet they'll be constrained by terrestrial bullets.

[Jing]: Ghost, switch my stuff up… I'd like to be back in Voidfang Vestiments.

Karina dropped an armor of light ward of dawn…

[J Ghost]: Always have a plan huh?

Chara charged into the bubble, temporarily blinded by the helm of saint 14…

[Jing]: I miss the time you found me speaking from the pseudo-beyond creepy.

Karina stepped back out as Chara flailed around inside with her glowing red knife…

[J Ghost]: I'm long past remarking "I wish you had been a hunter or titan." Any weapon changes?

Karina pulled out Dark-Drinker and went into a guarding defense returning into the bubble..

[Jing]: No… and tell me the relic is still next to me.

Chara recovered her eye sight and slashed at Karina… whose sword failed immediately… and lost most of the protection from Armor of Light… she jumped and triggered lift out of the purple bubble, staying out of reach…

[J Ghost]: Yeup.

A clenched fist appeared next to the pair of ghosts, breathing bright orange solar light as Jing reformed, clad in a different robe… he noted how his Theosyion Vibrissae seemed to twitch much more erratically since he got here… He grabbed the relic and poured his remaining light from Radiance back into it as Chara just noticed him… She blinked into his face…

Jing: Guardians… make their own fate!

He blasted Chara with the relic and started working on returning Harley to her feet, the bright solar light on him now ebbing away… as the dimension around them began to flicker and fail… Chara having been blasted out of it through a hole that was now getting larger…

Jing: After her…

The three guardians pushed out through the hole, which was now a rip and tear resembling the goo taken attacks left behind… greeting their eyes was a hellscape… bones and corpses, human corpses were everywhere… along with blood and ichor… blade wounds… evident all over… Harley sank to her knees instantly… Jing surveyed the area as Karina closed the eyes of a mother's body, holding her child… both had been stabbed with the same stroke.

The air was so hot as to be unbreathable… the forest surrounding Mt. Ebott was ablaze… the sky glowed orange red… the sky was thick, a mix of clouds, smoke and ash… the grass beneath their feet smoldered from the temperature of the place… he spotted violent jets of orange liquid arc into the sky… the ground rumbled and shook beneath his feet… as if the planet was shuddering from a fatal wound and bled its magma and molten iron core… it's dying breath smelled of burned things… people, plants, animals… wood… molten rock and metal… he sweated heavily… the air was saturated with water vapor from evaporating oceans…

Jing picked up a newspaper blowing in the scorching wind… there was a picture from the Hubble Telescope zoomed in on the Traveler on Mars…

Chara: Pathetic aren't they?

All guns present were leveled against the kid except Harley's who strained to even look… Chara had returned to a more human look, now like rosy cheeks and that smile… Karina stood by him and switched to her Dark Drinker… she moved with a silent fury that he knew very well… one that said, "this thing before us must be stopped."

Jing: I gotta hand it to you kid… not too bad at all… how were we too late to stop this?

Chara: Vex place you were in, mostly under my control now until you brought that relic… you were inside for those few seconds since you blasted me out… I had… plenty of time out here… it got boring with how weak they were though, so I decided ending the planet would be faster.

The portal they had exited convulsed and contracted as if pulled by a singularity and then detonated…

Now they were on Mars… the Traveler loomed in the distance behind Chara… but Jing felt the light, far more intense than ever before…and with that… assurance that things could be made right once again… even Harley got back up onto her feet… it was odd to see Mars as the red desert planet it was without ruins of cities or dead trees, no Cabal bases or Vex buildings… That was when he felt the tendrils of the Theosyion Vibrissae on his left arm reaching for the relic… he understood immediately and shifted the Aegis of Kabr onto his left hand and projected out a Vex conflux by funneling his light into the device…

Chara: What are you doing, do you think theres hope or that those dumb robots can help you now? I am on the cusp of doing what the darkness itself never could…

Chara appeared behind him, but Karina was swifter and decked her away with a hook punch… the rosy cheek's flesh tore… bleeding both blood and blight… though it slowly started to knit and heal… Chara teleported back to where she was originally standing… Harley knew that ability was from Sans…

[Harley]: Dreg's promise.

[H Ghost]: Are you sure? It's bad…

[Harley]: Do it… if I am fallen now I'll earn my redemption from the lowest rank.

[H Ghost]: Due to being so near the Traveler… I think you could switch subclasses and get your super back instantly… the light here is boundless even with the kid.

[Harley]: Cowboy and Nighthawk me.

Chara: I'm going to eat the Traveler, and you will never come to be! All of you!

Jing: You won't… because… we're here… and frankly the Traverler's pretty big, quite a mouthful for a tyke like you.

The conflux finished and became a Vex portal… Precursor-model Vex stepped out from the gate… Goblins… Hob-goblins… Minotaurs… even a Hydra and Harpies…

Chara: Are we calling for help now? Because I am without number… you cannot deal with all of me!

She pulled out the knife and thorn… Harley fired three golden gun rounds and Karina threw a suppressor grenade… Chara deflected the first round with her knife and shot the suppressor on it's flight path… which detonated on her and stumbled her causing the second sunfire round to whizz past… though she managed to meet the third golden gunshot bullet for bullet with Thorn.

Jing: Harley of all the God damned things you taught the kid, the one you got right was being a good blade dancer and gun slinger…

He stepped forwards to address Chara…

Jing:…or did you steal it from us when you caught us both?

Chara: A little here… a little there, you do know the sword logic don't you?

[Karina]: Sorry to bother you ghost, but replace St.14 with my Spektar tier 12 helmet… and put me in the Twilight Garrison… I'd wear it myself but…

[K Ghost]: Don't be… it's a time that justifies doing it like this… you're tier 12 now.

Jing looked at the Bolt Caster in his hands as blight pools began to appear around Chara… Harley cringed and made a whimpering sound… the monsters she had killed on this path were now back as abominations slaved to Chara… though Chara paused for a moment and shot the blighted Jerry herself with an imitation of the golden gun… a blue-black series of 3 bullets, though one was more than enough she fired all 3… Jerry bloated up and combusted although the fire left frost instead of ash in it's wake… the blighted monsters around it seemed happier and more focused on fighting despite their unnerving white demeanor with black hollowed slits for eyes… there weren't just monsters… people… normal human beings… showing fatal knife and gun wounds… but aglow with Chara's variant of blight…

Chara: Didn't like that guy.

Jing looked at the Vex, who had trained their guns on Chara's blight goons…

Jing: Well, I suppose that truce when we didn't shoot you all entering the Vault of Glass is actually pretty legit, are you all going to stand around being beautiful bronzes?

Chara: This matter has long been beyond resolving through acts and words…

Karina looked into the Martian sky before the battle began in earnest… she couldn't spot a lovely blue planet anymore… she didn't continue to look for it… knowing that from here… if she did locate it, all she might discover was that it was no longer blue… she looked at the tainted remains of life on Earth before her… and the revenants made of them.


	20. Guardians make their own fate

**Guardians make their own fate**

 **{SteamCloud}|{System_information_962}|{System information_963}**

 **{antigenesis}|{rewrite}|{enigma}**

 **{abort}!{halt}!{extinct** ***FAILED***

The ground where Freehold would have been built now became a battlefield for a war that was always on… Jing couldn't quite understand why the Vex were aiding them, but he wouldn't complain… perhaps he would get a chance to decipher the reason later… He leapt over the mix of killer robots driven by bacteria and ghastly white Remvenants who somehow glowed black… going into a glide… he could hear the jetting sound of Karina following him with Lift… it was always reassuring to have her with him in battle like this… he began to fight his way through the warring mobs to Chara once it was clear he couldn't make it there with flight alone.

Harley dodged Froggit's altered jump projectile, which was apparently somehow it shooting a leaping copy of itself at her… she slid under a Vex Minotaur's legs slicing clean through the Remvenant Aaron it was grappling with mid slide with her Sol Edge. She pulled out Eyasluna and fired at the Remvenant-Froggit behind her… and stabbed Remvenant Whimsun in front of her through the ring of blight it fired…

[Harley]: I still feel bad…

[H Ghost]: When they are taken, they're worse off than dead… this time it is legitimate mercy to kill them…

[Harley]: I don't think that applies here, the kid just keeps calling more and more in.

[H Ghost]: Then we stop the kid… and maybe the Traveler will hear our story and help us?

[Harley]: I don't deserve to be…

[H Ghost]: Take responsibility and make it better, that's what you're doing isn't it?

Harley didn't reply, she blasted through a sprinting human corpse with the Dreg's Promise as a Hobgoblin shot zinged past her head and struck one of the Dog royal guard's shambling forms… she followed up on it with three swings of Sol Edge… a headless goblin ran forwards towards the Remvenant of Greater Dog chewing on what had been its head…

[Harley]: Raze lighter, switch in my Queen's Choice.

[H Ghost]: I'll pop a Heavy synth just to be sure.

The Greater Dog Remvenant noticed her and roared like an ogre then charged… the bellow of a bark shattering a Vex Harpy that had been firing upon it. She set it aflame with a throwing knife… followed up with an incendiary grenade… the massive armored canine didn't seem to care it was on fire… she did a solar uppercut with the Raze lighter, cleaving it into two vertical halves which dissolved into goo and then nothingness.

[Harley]: Bones of Eao, Triple Jump.

[H Ghost]: Switching…

She sprinted and leapt up, Remvenant Tsundereplane turned and charged at her… she powered up her Golden Gun once more, extending her airtime and fired… she took one more jump and noticed a sniper glint… she fired her golden gun at its source in the crowd, melting a Remvenant sniper back to nothingness… she leapt a 3rd time, keeping one final jump… she spotted Jing and Karina battling Chara… she took the final extra jump the exotic boots granted and carefully aimed her final solar bullet… Chara teleported away and it struck red earth as Jing's Stormcaller lightning turned the same patch of sand to glass, but never getting to connect with her… until Karina's suppressor connected… and Chara was forced to block with her knife somehow... an imitation of the sword's forged guards… which failed as the last of Jing's stormtrance came out from his fingers and he stopped levitating with Arc…

Chara: I already have what I need from you, you're beneath me… these two however…

Harley gasped as a haunting form of Toriel emerged from the blight puddle she was standing on… hollowed eyes… dripping blight… aglow with alien black light in various spots of her dress and fur… blocking her way from reaching Chara who teleported and blinked a good distance away and assisting her friends… she hesitated… and the Remvenant before her seemed to hesitate… before it spoke and waved it's hands sending blue flames that froze the ground they passed over at her… she hurled an incendiary grenade and leapt over the exploding mix of hot and cold that resulted.

Remvenant Toriel:… I do not have the strength of will do restrain this horrible form of my being and speak at the same time, I am sorry…

Harley: Don't be… that should be me…

Remvenant Toriel: Save… that poor human… make this right…

Harley slid through the familiar spiral the chilling flames formed… she saw frost form on the FWC visor of her Infinite Lines mask.

Harley: Forgive me…

Remvenant Toriel: When you… end this abomination…

A large chunk of unnaturally cold fires blazed past her, freezing Vex that had been encroaching on this fight…

Remvenant Toriel: Do… it…

Harley approached the towering form before her… she was shorter by a good measure… it spread open its' arms and closed it's eyes… blight flowing from between the eyelids… mouth and nostrils as if crying… Harley leapt into the hug and stabbed Toriel in the back with her hunting knife…

Remvenant Toriel: T…th…thank…you… p…p…protect…

Harley:I… will…

Normal colors seemed to return as the Remvenant held her in that fatal hug… Toriel held her closer just a bit tighter as a real tear came out from the goat woman's eye instead of blight…

Toriel:…be good… my… child.

Harley: Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh!

Harley's golden gun ignited brighter than ever… the Vex fighting the copies of Snowdrake and Chilldrake looked at her once and immediately teleported away as she leveled the sunfire weapon… each shot leaving a burning pool of light… she sent that final round rocketing its slipstream at Chara… who seemed to flinch for a moment at the sight before teleporting away again as Jing's storm grenade landed on that spot and turned the sand below to glass with lightning…

She rounded a rock in her way and a Remvenant Papyrus stood in her way… somehow still wearing that smile… Harley paused as a Minotaur came up behind her to smack away a machete wielding human Remvenant… Orange bones came out from the ground and impaled the chasis of the massive metal machine and swept towards her, she jumped over them as they came from her back…

Remvenant Papyrus: It's good to see you again human… you didn't stop doing violence, but at least it seems you are doing it for a good reason now!

Harley: I…

The blight dripping skeleton stopped moving and talking, Harley hesitated… she knew Papyrus dying was a point of no return for her in the underground earlier…

Remvenant Papyrus: Do it… my body will fight when I try to talk… nyeh-heh… ha… being like this really feels awful…

Harley jumped over a sequence of black and orange bones that came out from the ground and swept at her…

H Ghost: What are you waiting for?! He wants you to do it! Jing and Karina need our support…

Harley shot Remvenant Papyrus in her head with Eyasluna… not even daring to look… he started coming over despite the fatal wound… that had been scored without even being looked at.

H Ghost: He's coming over here, he's coming over here! I really don't like that he's…

She felt boney arms and a crudely made set of chest armor press up against her and unwillingly returned the skeleton's hug… she didn't deserve this… if only he had stopped believing in her and cursed or swore at her for killing him the first time… only, that time could have been an accident… this time there was no going around that… or the fact that Chara and the darkness were no longer messing with her. Papyrus regained his more normal colors and stopped leaking blight and spoke his final words.

Papyrus: Even if nobody else will, I… The Great Papyrus, forgive you for everything! You are super strong human! Make sure you win this… it was hard to talk… but it's… becoming harder now, good luck with your life… human!

Harley ran towards Chara again, the last of Papyrus dribbling off her armor and cape… her golden gun over penetrating the armor of both Remvenant royal guards, Remvenant dogamy, Remvenant dogaressa… she reached a Vex Hydra blocking her path, but it's back was to her… it was firing at something…

Harley: Move, or you will be moved.

As she finished her sentence a blood red spear cleaved clean through the Hydra's protective rotary shielding… she jumped over as the chasis glowed bright orange and detonated… landing afore Remvenant Undyne…

Remvenant Undyne: Well, this will be worth it! At least I get to try for my revenge now!

Harley dodged the blood red spear as Undyne swept with it following the inirial thrust, she jumped once… over the sweep…

Remvenant Undyne: Besides, if you aren't strong enough to beat me again… you don't stand a chance against the real monster…

Harley timed her extra jumps to avoid the magical blighted spears which appeared in the air around her, which instead of acting like they were hurled, whirled and spun like a combination of deadly airborne buzz saws…

Remvenant Undyne: …That you created! Or is that also something you didn't know like how Papyrus would die to your powers?!

Harley landed on Undyne's spear rod… forcing the fish woman to cancel the weapon and summon a new one as she drew out Raze Lighter…

Harley: You're right… I didn't know what I had been doing… but I know I did it… and now I want to fix it…

H Ghost: Aren't you gonna let us through like the others before?

Remvenant Undyne: This is my last fight ever… against my greatest opponent… you will give it to me and show me all the skills you hide!

Harley deflected the spear with Raze Lighter and slid under the length of the spear's rod… Undyne jumped away and began to twirl it around until he air pressure built up from the spinning began to kick up a small dust storm… Harley stopped and channeled her light, unholstering the golden gun again… she started with an incendiary grenade… which Undyne's defense deflected… and then pointed the sunfire weapon at Undyne's head… she fired… it was blocked… the second shot went for Undyne's feet… it was blocked again… the third shot impacted Undyne's weapon directly without deflecting… the blighted mermaid staggered from the hit… Harley charged in and slashed with a Solar uppercut from Raze lighter… no time to waste now…

Undyne: That's it, that's the power! Go! Go now! No need to watch my pathetic death again!

She began the chase again… spotting Jing close in with a glide as Karina's suppressor grenade exploded on Chara once more… he emptied Invective's clip into the child of darkness… A bright green laser beam blazed out incinerating a Hopgoblin that had been firing in that direction…

Remvenant Mettaton: Quite the plot twist darling, a war sequence after an apocalypse from a horror film! Ooo-la-la…

Harley: Ugh… how many of you guys are there?!

She chucked an incendiary grenade which a blighted minimett suddenly appeared from nowhere to catch and take it up into the air where it exploded harmlessly.

Remvenant Mettaton: It takes too much effort to talk and make my now puppet body not fight, so pay attention to what I have to say… ah ha ha ha…

Harley: Yeah, you gonna lecture me about glamour?!

She performed a Solar Uppercut again on a shadowy copy of Mettaton's rectangular robotic body which silently had appeared and tried to sneak up on her… motion trackers were such a boon to have back.

Remvenant Mettaton: So unappreciative and ungrateful darling… I'm trying to help you win here, so that at least you can write a good ending to this box office bomb of yours…

Harley: Don't keep me waiting…

She took cover behind a rock as the bright green laser blared again… she could feel the rock beginning to crumble and melt from the sustained beam assault.

Remvenant Mettaton: Plot twists darling! Plot twists! Hit the audience in a way they will never see you coming! You did do it to me… when Alphys and I thought we won! Ha ha…

Harley: What audience?!

Remvenant Mettaton: The one who has been watching your very horrible little show from the beginning way before I tried Neo:Death by Glamour…

Mettaon sent a trail of minimetts to swarm her and instead of weighing her down… they dragged her so that she was looking at Jing and Karina battle Chara… as he was now throwing a vortex grenade which Chara teleported out of after taking some hits from it… the minimetts began to beep and blow up… her shields failed and she felt herself bleeding and with broken bones within… but this close to the traveler… her regeneration began a lot faster… she got back up…

Remvenant Mettaton: Oh… that magic couple attacks with a fab color, shame I am all teal now… sorry darling!

Harley jumped out of the way as a functional blighted imitation of Mettaton's jet boots impaled the area where she had been and exploded.

"Harley of all the God damned things you taught the kid, the one you got right was being a good blade dancer and gun slinger…"

She remembered herself operating as a bladedancer during most of her time in the Underground… then Mettaton's words clicked in and made sense… she had only showcased her Gunslinger abilities at him… which they had never seen before and couldn't account for… so Chara did learn those or understood the light that empowered those abilities… could even imitate them when she was cut down earlier via Hive magic mumbo jumbo… and she remembered how throughout this whole battle, only Karina seemed to be able to get a decent hit on the kid and hold her own properly while she and Jing had been ineffective… Karina was working as a Defender Titan… and Defenders drew power from Void light… from the corner of her eye, Jing's Vortex grenade scored a short few seconds of damage before Chara teleported… and Karina threw her Ward of Dawn back up against Chara's imitated blade dance… While Jing seemed to be succeeding now as a Voidwalker…

[Harley]: Nightstalker me.

[H ghost]: Nightstalker… change done… you must have realized something serious…

Remvenant Mettaton stood before her and prepared his double lasers… she shadestepped out of the way of the beam. And drew forth a bow of Void light…

Remvenant Mettaton: Oh… that is new, and fabulous… darling…

The arrow struck Remvenant Mettaton… his body began to defy gravity as he turned into blighted goo and purple void charged particles… floating away while flaking…

Mettaton: Marvelous darling! 100/100! Best ratings for sure…

She ran forwards, and found an ideal spot to shoot Chara with her void arrow or tether her with it, at least… but it was occupied by two Hobgoblin's who were sniping at Remvenants of Final Froggit and Knight Knight… a familiar sound reached her ears and she ducked… a black laser vaporized the Vex machines… Remvenant Sans stood behind her… blight leaking from his nose hole and teeth… his eye now flashing red and purple, still clad in slippers and a hoodie… which were now orange… Sans grimaced and pulled the hood over his head… he wasn't smiling… and just looked tired.

Harley: I know… you told me so… warned me…

Remvenant Sans:… But… there might just yet be… a chance.

The Gaster Blaster shook next to him and backfired as Sans managed to will enough to keep its jaw shut… he was clearly strained to the limits from the efforts needed… there was quite a cynical scowl on the skeleton's face as a blighted sweatdrop went down his temple.

Harley: I… my friends… can make this right Sans…

Remvenant Sans: I see… it's out of my hands now anyway… heh.

A shaking Gaster Blaster came down again, pointed at Harley but it trembled and shook…

Harley: I'm sorry for everything…

The Gaster Blaster began to rotate… no longer aimed at Harley…

Remvenant Sans: Don't tell the other Sanses…

H Ghost: He… it's gonna…

Harley: Sans… forgive me…

Remvenant Sans: If we truly were friends… you won't come back.

The Gaster Blaster fired, there was nothing left of Sans and the blaster dissolved into the ether… Harley took up the position… another pair of Hobgoblins had been perched at the spot again… they looked at her and each other then promptly backed away and sought other vantage points to fight from… She let the Void arrow fly and it struck Chara who screamed in an inhuman wail and struggled to move from the binding energy tether…

Harley sprinted to her comrades' side… doing her best to ignore the wellspring of pain she felt building in her chest…

Harley: I… I got it! She doesn't know anything about how to deal with the way we channel Void energy… during my time down there…

Jing: Yeah, I kinda already figured… you never use Nightstalker until we demand it… ever.

The sound of a Ward of Dawn going up filled their ears…

Karina: Changed to weapons…

Harley went in and felt the power strengthen her guns… Jing blasted away with Invective… Karina slashed with Dark Drinker's supermassive Vortex… Harley fired with her Queen's Choice… but the Tether lasped and Chara teleported away before she could connect with another… the battleground grew shadowed… Jing hurled a Lance type Nova bomb as Harley connected with another tether arrow…

Chara: Ha, this little fight has drawn its attention… and from the brightest light casts the darkest shadow… I can eat of all this because it still knows that soul is flailing in me!

Jing looked closer… Chara was wounded, but the human body wrapping her blight was still recovering… The Traveler's looming form had stopped causing rain on Mars in the distance and was indeed approaching their battle…

Jing: She's too rich with killing and devoured light… we could fight her forever unless the Traveler intervenes directly…

Karina: Beloved… why not show the brat a game of rift?

Harley: Is this really the time for that?! Ghostie!

H Ghost: You never wondered why guardians die when you score and they are nearby? It's the strongest Nova bomb ever made that a warlock can't detonate it themselves under normal conditions…

Harley: What if we kill the kid? The real… kid in there…

Jing: We're near the Traveler, that stupid taken tot bringing us here with her was a big mistake… I'll make the preparations with Karina… you have to occupy her and keep her off us and the Traveler… trust it, and us!

Harley: But I…

Karina: There is something evil in there… if you made it, you can beat it… but don't stop to gloat or feel power over it… we kill because they will… they kill because they can… to feel good and powerful… laugh at dying prey… there lies the difference… between a protector and a murderer…

Harley turned and made ready to face Chara again… Vex teleported to her and marched at the same stride behind her as Chara called forth more blight Remvenant monsters and humans… Karina pulled dark drinker out and twirled it… preparing to make the rift for Jing to ignite the spark in… Minotaurs and Hydras floated and marched in step with her…

H Ghost: And what is a protector… but… a guardian?

Harley: Thanks Ghostie…

Chara: You really think those stupid robots with germ brains are your friends? Beating me is just a way for them to get what they want, as is yours, that pathetic moral construct called redemption… Or do you actually think you can save the world I already destroyed…

Harley: Well, me and the robots think each other are bad, that's true… but we both looked at you and decided… you're worse…

In a strange way to never be seen again… the Vex waited for Harley to fire before joining in… was this respect, power or a possible new alliance and understanding? Guardians have spent many a long hard year trying to communicate with the Vex… but it just kept proving impossible… was this payment for a favor in the vault of glass or had something gone so wrong in their calculations that here they would marshal to the side of the Guardians in a show of desperation? As Jing generated and condensed the Void energy into a spark he contemplated… and wondered what secret answers he could get from the Theosyion Vibrissae on his left arm and shoulder… did those whipping tendrils contain some part or the whole of the mind or processing intelligent part of the Restorative Mind, Theosyion? The answer would need to wait… Chara was the immediate concern first… He continued to charge the spark…

Karina began channeling Void energy into the Dark drinker, forming a supermassive Vortex in the same spot repeatedly intending to open a rift without the sophisticated technology of the tower… Harley fenced with Chara, intending to make sure Chara couldn't see what Karina or Jing were attempting…

Chara: Time and history are changing… soon these dumb robots won't be here… and you and your friends will be all alone…

Harley ducked underneath a black blade extending from the red little knife… she was mainly on the defense as Chara used San's style of teleporting to fight in her weakened state…

Harley: What the hell are you talking about?!

Chara: Time is an ocean… stick a finger in it and the ripples grow…

Harley prepared a tether as Chara prepared a blighted variant of blade dance…

Chara: These robots… they aren't like us…of the deep and sky… when the timeline shifts or resets, they just have to suck up any chance that they won't exist... could happen, that's why they rail and rage so hard against it like unfed babies… and then when they realize nobody is coming… they'll stop crying…

Harley: I don't care about what you're thinking as you turn to me… cause what I have in my two hands is enough to set me free!

She shadestepped away and jumped once, again in the air… Chara missed several slashes… a second time… and a third…

Harley's Raze Lighter failed as Chara's corrupted copy of blade dance clashed with it…she shade stepped and jumped up twice… Chara teleported behind her… Harley turned and caught her exiting out of teleport with a tether… out of the corner of her eye she heard the familiar hissing noise of a spark and rift… Chara was floored…

Harley: Blah blah blah, I know your type! You think it's too much for someone to take you sneak up from behind!

The rift was formed… and Jing was sprinting over with the spark… Karina grabbed the still tethered Chara and heaved her at the rift easily… since Chara was hit by the tether it didn't break and she was still suppressed, barely mustering the strength to get off the ground again…

Jing: You've been talking a lot, real big about the sword logic… but ever since I got my own hands on it, I've been thinking… how come something that became so powerful… still lost to me… I studied the swords and tested them in battle again and again…

He knew the timing of the tether and paced his walk to match, the spark in his light hissed as he pushed it out into his hands…

Jing: There's apparently another hidden level I will find a way to put into words that's more meaningful than "answer me truthfully if I can rip your world apart or somebody else will ask me that…" But I'll call it "strength through trial" for now and you… I look upon you and I can tell, you may have the sword logic and great power, but nothing you gained from it was truly a trial was it?

He ignited the rift with a somersault dunk, the blast did it… the original kid in a double blue and purple stripped shirt was blown clean… though Chara still remained before them… Karina picked the kid up and carried the child on her back… having gotten there first by a creatively speedy use of lift…

[Karina]: Make a containment field for the kid on me… I need both my hands…

[K Ghost]: Got it…

Chara got back up to her feet… she opened her palm to reveal a red heart on it… even as her face distorted in a horrific smile as blight trickled down suddenly vacant eye sockets and her mouth…

Chara: Looking for this? I finished taking it already, it's mine now…

Harley: No…

Karina: Harley! The kid on my back still breathes! There may yet be a chance or way…

The vex fighting Chara's Remvenants suddenly seized up… and shook… as they began to flicker away into nonexistence in a mix of mechanical shrieks, wails and screams… history had been altered in a way such that the Vex never existed… somehow… Jing checked for his left arm… somehow the remnants of the Restorative Mind remained there… though it's tendrils twitched and flexed in random uncontrollable panicked directions…

Chara: Ha… look at your feeble hope… the only reason you are still here is because you channel the sky… like I channel the deep… I wonder… what would happen to you if the Traveler were no more… would you lose your ontological traits and vanish? Or will you be here for me to kill off?

Jing: We won't be finding out. Same plan!

Chara seemed to grow taller… until Harley realized they were looking upon each other at eye level… like starring in a mirror at a blighted taken version of herself… except for the blight that bled from an eyeless version of her face through the sockets and mouth… Harley was stunned by this… and stepped backwards… Jing and Karina began to prepare the spark and rift while defending each other back to back…

Chara: Fitting, isn't it… that it ends like this… because everything here, you wrought… I was going to incubate longer but taking over that meat sack was but a preference, I no longer want it… and now here I stand… I am a monument to all your sins…

Chara said all this while waving Thorn glowing its brightest greens ever… along with that red knife that exuded a black sword blade at her.

Karina: Harley it'll take a bit longer since the Vex are no longer here to…

Harley stepped back… choking back tears… Karina noticed… and as she punched away a Remvenant of Loox, she shouted encouragement… glowing purple as she drew a force barrier from the blighted eye monster.

Karina: We can make it right! Somehow… I know we will!

[Harley]: Heavy synth.

[H Ghost]: Go get her.

Harley prepared and charged a tether… but Chara teleported in front of her face just as she drew the bow string and ran her through with the black blade from her blood red glowing knife…

Harley: Ugnh… G-*hack*…

Chara:And… there goes the only advantage you all have had over me… so this is the legacy of the void… hungry… not bad… it suits me… I like it…

Harley: Ah-….

She landed on her knees as her ghost shell emerged… spinning… but the uninjured Traveler was here… this was no darkness zone… she rose back up having recovered from that death quickly… pulling out Raze Lighter once again…

Chara: You're still coming? Can't you see it's hopeless? With so much light here I can corrupt it to just replicate everything you all do, never mind how you fed me fat with so much killing of all those monsters… You're supposed to despair and give up! Why do you still let your hope poison you!?

Harley swept with a Solar Uppercut… which Chara teleported away from… Harley saw the trip mine at her feet and blocked with the sword's guard… she swung the blade at Chara… who teleported away again… Harley shadestepped backwards and as she came out of the roll, hurled a smoke pellet and Voidwall grenade together… catching Chara and blinding her as she emerged from the teleport…

Harley: I finally fully get what Jing meant and said about you…

She stepped into the smoke pellet and flames of voidwall and slapped Chara's perverse mockery of herself in the face…

Harley: You're a bully and that's that!

Chara struggled to level herself and power up a blade dance but was suppressed by another tether arrow from Harley…

Harley: OOOooo look at me! I got the big bad Hive mumbo Jumbo that lets me steal people's powers by killing them, yay! I am so strong… Ha ha… ha ha ha ha ha…

It was a childish jab, but Harley could tell she was getting under the skin of the demoniacal kid.

Chara: You… mock me?

Chara strained against the tether… but it held and kept her quite immobile. She screamed in frustration.

Harley threw a solar uppercut again with the blade, drawing forth blight… she hoped the red heart or… the kid's soul wasn't harmed… as the blighted imitation of her FWC mask fell off dissipating into goo and nothingness… Chara struggled with Thorn to get it pointed at Harley…

Harley: Yeah, I do… you know something… all those monsters whose powers you took… I did the real fighting with them… me! Harley! You worthless free-loading thief! You didn't even steal their powers by killing them properly! You just dipped in with that Hive Abra Kadabra when I was about done with them…

Her tether spit more purple tendrils out as Chara's Remvenant minions encroached and were bound similarly… Harley fired one more tether before the first expired on Chara and renewed the smoke pellet and grenade as well… as Chara missed with a shot from Thorn due to Harley shade stepping.

Harley: You take the easy way and kill steal… or kill them when I didn't want to just by riding along! Big whoop! Now you think being able to do what I can do in a fight makes you stronger than me? Don't make me laugh! I got this good by practice, bullet holes all over my body and close scrapes, not being a cowardly fair weather opportunist like you!

She drew raze lighter and threw three vicious slashes, a downward cut as if she had just unsheathed the blade… a side slash that nearly bisected the blighted lifeform before her, and an overhead slash that almost cut the thing using her physical shape in half… she renewed the tether again as Chara rolled near the rift from the blows… Jing finished the spark and was about to ignite the rift but Karina stopped him by putting her hand on his shoulder and shaking her head at him, then cocking it in Harley's direction…

Chara whimpered… she had come so far… gained so much power… yet here and now… like when facing Sans… was something that truly gave her pause and could stand against her… and she was afraid… for whatever the Deep and Darkness had blessed her with… now here she was again… made into a victim… of the very laws of the universe she had pledged herself to… worse… the horrible years that have passed were now flooding back into her mind that ended with her fleeing her village… a powerless victim… good, at least that meant she could see Asriel again… only… she had ruined that too, hadn't she? She feebly tried to fire Thorn… it thudded into Harley's shoulder… the hunter clearly felt it, but renewed the tether again in the boundless light… and gripped the stake and pulled it out… and jabbed it into her gut…

Harley: I work together with my friends to make things bigger and better and for everyone we care about to be happier… and for the record… I'm the only one who should look like me…

Jing handed her the spark and backed away with Karina as Harley took the glowing cluster for a moment and with purpose, stepped forwards… igniting the rift.

When the flash of light faded… Chara was back there in her normal appearance… rosy cheeks… smiling… but her glowing red eyes shattered and the smile began to melt away as well… the brown hair sliding off corrupted flesh like hay in defrosting winter mud… she laughed as the blight within began to flow away into nothingness uncontrollably… a red heart hung there for a moment trembling… and split down then middle… then shattered… Chara's laughter seemed to echo in an unholy manner…

Harley: No…

Jing cradled the child of Karina's back… the kid's breath weakening…

Jing: She… didn't just steal the soul… she had devoured it… and when she went… the kid…

Karina knelt and took off her helmet, closing her eyes in mourning and grief… the Traveler had apparently already made the air of Mars breathable…

Harley: No… no… no… no… why why why why why why why?!

Harley beat her hands on the ground in frustration and grief… she had won the battle, but her failure was now well and truly complete… Jing got up and paced toward the Traveler… and used his helmet to zoom in on Earth… the blue planet was now brown and still bleeding orange magma and molten iron… it's polar ice caps nowhere to be seen… with thick clouds and ash cover now obscuring nearly everything he could see…

[J Ghost]: You got a plan boss?

[Jing]: Yeah? What would I do? Go up to the Traveler and say, "Hey ma'am I'm from a future timeline where you're in a coma and somehow got dumped in an altered timeline past by killer robots who no longer exist… oh and by the way, the species you are fixing this planet for just got made extinct in this timeline as well… please help us… especially this dead kid first?"

[J Ghost]: That sounds just like one actually… let me try…

Jing opened his palm and let his ghost fly out and off towards the huge white sphere in the distance… wondering if his sarcastic rant could actually yield any productivity in this current bleak situation… he strolled back over to where he had summoned the Vex gate… before the battle… only now there was never a Vex gate at all… never had been one, never would be… he looked at the gloves on his left arm again… the Aegis from the vault of glass… and took out Atheon's eye which he had been keeping in his robes… part of him just wanted to hurl said eye into a rock and smash it to bits for putting him into this dumb time abyss he couldn't figure a way to navigate out of… never mind landing Harley here first… she wasn't bad, but tended to need more focused, calm… less blood thirsty minds around her. But because of a guardian's nature as beings wielding the Traveler's light, and since he held all these things, they were somehow still here… hopefully there would be a purpose or use…

He returned and found the women speaking excitedly to his ghost… Karina kept the little souvenir she kept from the Crota's End raid she had been showing Harley…

J Ghost: There is a way! And now that you're back, we have everything we need!

Jing: How?

J Ghost: I told the traveler what happened to us and anything relevant to do with it… weird telling what's basically my mum that she'll go into a coma giving birth to me so to speak… but well… she'll need Atheon's eye… the relic… and your gloves… oh and we better bring everything that was with us all along… including… that.

They looked at where the ghost bobbed itself in direction wise… The hand cannon which was less a weapon than a curse sat there… it's jagged black metal edge looking like some perverse spike… Karina got up… picked it out from the ground and handed it back to Harley… who shuddered as she received what had once been a prized possession of hers… now mocking her irresponsibility and frivolousness in becoming its master once again… taunting her of decisions that were made, even if time was put back on the course it should be… her bubbly jolly demeanour vanished now that this gun was here, a monument to all her sins….

They stood under the Traveler… Karina holding onto the kid's body and Harley looking at the ground as Thorn was limply, loosely held in her left… there should be a great shadow but now there was abundant light beneath the Traveler… which got brighter and brighter and yet somehow was warm, loving and gentle… never blinding.. the Theosyion Vibrissae on Jing's hand even seemed to waft in joy despite currently being the last of the at the moment extinct Vex… The relic fired a blaze of intense light into Atheon's eye, which flashed again… and then this timeline… happened only in memory.


	21. Chrono Storm

**Chrono Storm**

Karina: So… this is where you were?

Jing: You got here before us?

Harley could only nod… she was still looking at Thorn in her hands now… she feared it, yet didn't want to lose it after working so hard to claim it, yet she knew what it could and would do if she kept it… but what would it do to her if she destroyed it? Weapons like these had long terrified their guardians…

Jing: Well before we do anything… that thing… was never a weapon of the light… I was curious and let you hit me with a Void weapon which you somehow needed for it to work… but now we're at the end of a road that proves it's a lot more trouble than it's worth…

Karina: But weapons like that… they have some pact with the darkness and their users…

Jing: She's not the original who made that gun or twisted it into the horrible flesh eating stake spitter… I was there when she found the shell of the damn thing and started shooting Hive for re-empowering it…

Harley merely nodded… but simply handed it out, expecting it to be taken away… the emotional sum total of everything was catching up to her… and right now she was about to part with a prized possession… didn't register with her… no, it was no longer prized… it was the conduit of all her current painful memories and regrets… she couldn't bear to be with it any longer… indeed it was a curse upon existence…

Jing: Well, she knows what must be done with it then, and if she won't or can't…

Karina stood up, towering over her beloved again… she nodded again and put her Spektar helmet back over her head… Jing threw the hand cannon 10 feet away and flared with radiance, throwing fusion grenades repeatedly onto the gun, which stubbornly stayed in shape but was beginning to superheat to a bright orange… as it was jostled around the Vex dimension by the blasts…

Harley: Gggghhhh…

As Jing's radiance wore off, he pelted it with a sleeper simulant shot… the thing finally cracked and glowed green no more… Karina activated her hammer of Sol… and picked up the husk of a gun and tossed it a little in front of her then performed a suncharge into the weapon, disintegrating Dregen Yor's damning legacy into solar particles and ether…

Harley screamed and collapsed as it happened… Jing and Karina rushed to her side… her ghost came out…

H Ghost: Don't worry, she'll be fine… but when she'll wake up I cannot say… the psychic backlash from the gun's destruction won't kill her…

Jing: Well, what now? How did things here happen so that…

H Ghost: I have everything Harley watched… felt or experienced in this place… I can give it to your ghost… and maybe you can find a solution for us… guide the kid home where we failed…

Jing: Do your thing…

J Ghost: I'm on it boss…

K Ghost: Shall I…?

Karina: Yeah, might be a clue or information to help her back up…

The ghosts shared a data beam for a moment…

Karina: I'll tend to Harley for now… see what I can do, you're the most intelligent of us here beloved, I know you'll find the way…

Jing: I will…

His ghost returned to him…

Jing: You have it?

[J Ghost]: Part of me wishes I didn't… this is gritty, gory material… but the gist of it is… you're gonna be operating out of a kid's body… that blue and purple striped one at that… but at least light seems to affect the kid…

Jing: Alright, let me see some of that… and… let's do this.

Jing looked at the little skylight available from above through the kid's eyes… he leapt up as the kid and began to glide…

Jing: Wow, the kid… or the kid's body could be a guardian… it's almost as if I am moving my own… disturbing prospect of mind controlling a child without knowing or wanting to aside… Even if I don't kill anyone… how will they recover from this?

[J-Ghost]: You could show them how to be good or better… testing anything else?

Jing: Voidlock, pull some blinks out… I've reviewed Harley's first sojourn through here… I don't think anything here really deserved to die… but I don't blame her either… when we go out there, nearly everything alive is shooting at us… probably residue reflex…

Jing leapt and did some blinks as a Voidwalker… the kid's body worked just as well… granting the limits of a child's body.

[J-Ghost]: Least you got rid of the darkest conduit here…

Jing: That a bit pre-emptive Jeanie… who's to say our reforged swords won't turn on us or be used similarly? Oryx is probably still alive since we have confirmation this is the past… and the Edges and Exotic swords… their true power lies in willbreaker's heart… Sword Logic even… and… do we really want Oryx or the darkness to find out we'll make or take these in the future? Can they somehow?

He contemplated Bolt Caster for a moment… but the blade surged with light despite still bearing the Sword Logic… perhaps there was no danger… or there was and he was ignorant… even with Harley's video feed and logs… information was incomplete.

[J-Ghost]: I see, you've really been thinking a lot…

Jing: Perks of helmets that add processing power to the brain… ready to meet the flower Jeanie?

[J-Ghost]: Yeah… what are you planning to do?

Jing: I think the flower… Flowey… at that… is a scared traumatized kid deep down… trying to make meaning or reason of everything… but… they'll be shocked into behaving when they see true evil or somebody powerful enough… something he spat out of his own mouth there…

He switched himself to a Storm Caller and practiced another glide… Theosyion Vibrissae's tendrils moved with the air flow…

[J-Ghost]: Kill or be killed?

Jing: Yes… and I'll do my best to understand and navigate this place, and maybe decipher what the Vex want from us or here… and like all we worked so hard for back home… the way we did it is simple to sum up in three words…

[J-Ghost]: Peace through power… ironic you're with dead orbit then… they want the power to run away.

Jing: Indeed… but power isn't just expressed by killing… you have to use it through refinement and precision… and observation of the situation… A big fleet to powerful warships will be nothing but good for the city… and knowing when to imply threat here… can be as good as actually doing it, I'm sure… we'll have to be situationally alert and observant… use anything or any clue or sign… and hopefully make quick decisions that we don't end up regretting…

He switched back to a Sun singer…

[J-Ghost]: You want to wear those Sunbreakers Xur sold which are tier 12 quality instead?

Jing: No… you remember that time me and Karina went to the Echo Chamber Strike with that jerk who flunked out on us and ditched us…

[J-Ghost]: You mean…

Jing: Yes… there's something connecting this incident and that… plus with what just happened on Mars…I'd say these things are going to be a lot more important and useful in ways we don't even know yet…

He stopped focusing on the child for a moment and looked behind him as Karina and her ghost tended to Harley in the dimension Atheon had sent them into… then the fallen human child's body began to walk off the patch of Buttercups and through the door leading to the underground.


	22. Peace Through Power

**Peace Through Power**

He who controls the past commands the future,

He who commands the future, conquers the past.

-Kane/George Orwell

Flowey: Why,...? Why? WHY? We were on our way to REAL victory...On our way to making up for LAST time!

The child's body simply crossed arms in response…

Jing: Do you have any damned idea what just nearly happened?!

[J Ghost]: Selective memory loss? But if this is the past… how could he remember anything of what happened when Harley…

Flowey: Why'd you have to SCREW IT UP? Hahaha...Is this REVENGE?

Jing: It wasn't but now I'm just gonna say yes…

[J Ghost]: Careful now, you haven't seen all the footage, but I'd say we have to observe this one carefully ourselves…

Flowey: Making me watch you act so pure and happy, while I...? Making me watch you live out your life, while I...?...

Jing: Yes, but that is entirely beside the point.

Flowey: . I KNOW what you're doing. You just want to see what it's all like. Before we TEAR IT AWAY from them. Ahahaha...Genius, well, I'll let you mess around. I know you'll come back eventually. And when that time comes... I'll be waiting for you.

Jing: Will you now… Keep waiting. Classic case of denial… let me make a point.

He hurled a Solar grenade next to Flowey, burning up the grass instantly, the sentient buttercup glared at the ball of orange sun fire in surprise and shock…

Jing: I didn't miss. I aimed there… consider this a warning…

Flowey burrowed away quite rapidly as the Solar grenade ebbed… and Jing recognized Toriel approaching from Harley's ghost data… He wonders if she or Karina was taller… he couldn't make an accurate comparison now from the kid's eyes… but that wasn't a priority either… He decided to be a little pro-active, with what little he understood of Toriel from the ruins based footage he had watched…

Jing: Hi… I… fell from above…

Toriel: That's why I am here child… I am Toriel… caretaker of the ruins… and I come here to check for fallen humans everyday… are you hurt?

[Jing]: I sense the power of the strong…

[J Ghost]: Do you now? Then again, maybe going down to one blade dance slash doesn't mean weak either, just ask Trials winners eh?

Toriel: Small one?

He realized he had left the child blank faced for a moment.

Jing: I…

Toriel: It's alright, welcome to the underground… you must be so confused… come with me…

He sprinted, just enough to be faster than Toriel's longer walking strides… and made it to the first puzzles just before her…

Toriel: My my, you're an energetic one despite being in a place you've never seen before… the ruins are filled with puzzles… a cross between diversions and…

Jing had gotten the pattern right from Harley's earlier sojourn through and was tugging at the switch to open the door, only… it wasn't quite working… Toriel raised an eyebrow and broke into a big smile.

Toriel: You're a lucky one too! But maybe when you're older and weigh a bit more, like me… ha ha ha…

[J Ghost]: Did she just call herself fat?

[Jing]: She's an anthromorphic Nubian goat, it'll be hard to judge without years of research… and let's not make that assumption…

Toriel stepped the stones pathing and gestured for the switch to be pulled… which Jing complied immediately…

Toriel: Splendid… well, since you are so impetuous… the switch in the next room is marked, I'll trust you to pull it!

[J Ghost]: Harley broke down after killing her…

He sprinted up to the switch with three yellow arrows pointed at it on the magenta walls…

[Jing]: I can see why… but I'll endeavor to find another way…

[J Ghost]: What if there isn't? What if she needs a child so badly that she's gone… Yandere over it? If you know what I mean?

[Jing]: Even that can be used… plus I doubt she is gone in the head like that, just in a lot of pain… like Harley…

[J Ghost]: Especially now…

Toriel called out from the spike barrier.

Toriel: My child! Did it rust? Do you lack the strength?

He realized he had been chattering with his ghost a bit too much and grabbed the switch with both hands, giving it a hard yank… he felt the place vibrate a little… the sensation mixed with a stony thud.

Toriel: You certainly stand out amongst the other children who have fallen here… energetic and yet… hesitant… but you seem to think a lot as well, that is just a simple switch small one, remember it.

[J Ghost]: Here comes the dummy room… just humor her and say hi to it?

Indeed, his ghost was right… Toriel started talking about practicing talking to the dummy when attacked by monsters to buy time for her to intervene… but he was annoyed by how retarded this felt…

[Jing]: I can't believe this… what the heck am I supposed to say?

[J Ghost]: Just ask it how's the weather?

[Jing]: We're under a damn mountain! It's gonna be dry or dripping water, if we're real unlucky… Lava! That's it! That's all there can be!

[J Ghost]: Take time to watch ahead of the places you haven't been to… you'd be surprised…

[Jing]: Ok, I can't argue with that but still, what am I supposed to say to this damn 1800s mannequin?!

[J Ghost]: Just stop feeling or thinking for a moment! Greet it!

[Jing]: This is stupid!

[J Ghost]: I can't stop you feeling that way! But the goat lady wants us to… or do you want to beat it up like Harley did?

[Jing]: Maybe that's a better idea, but… No! We can't do things the way she did now! Maybe even this matters! Time Travel… Ugh…

[J Ghost]: …Yeah it's a doozy… but come on, just…

[Jing]:Oh fine…

Jing: I'm Batman…

[J Ghost]: What?!

Only… the dummy had apparently tired of what it took for aimless shenanigans somehow and levitated its way up to the ceiling and didn't quite care what he said… Toriel stepped over… in surprise and disbelief at how things had transpired before her eyes…

Toriel: Well you did try… but that was unexpected… was it hard to think of something to say? Don't worry, you'll do better at it…

Jing: Ok…

[J Ghost]: Beware of big frog…

Toriel: There's something else in this room, please don't run ahead of me this time… I'd rather you not get hurt… that puzzle… can be dangerous.

Indeed, as Jing let Toriel pace ahead the Froggit did leap out at him… he jumped back and raised his right arm in defense… suppressing the urge to throw a Warlock's palm thrust… he wondered about running… but Toriel had heard the scuff of his shoes and turned around… staring very intently at the Froggit… her eyebrows furrowed a little… the Froggit sheepishly slunk away and out of sight…

[Jing]: That went well…

[J Ghost]: If only you could convince her to follow you to the end…

[Jing]: Someone this powerful has no reason to just be here looking for kids… she has her secrets, and let her keep them by being here, we'll manage… somehow.

Toriel waited for them at the bridge filled with hallucinated spikes… and offered her hand… he took it.

Toriel: I'm glad despite your energetic and inquisitive nature… you still didn't run ahead as I have said…

Jing: I believe you want what's best for me… isn't it?

Toriel:... But don't trust anyone else that easily, my child…

Jing: I won't…

They strided across the bridge, turning as the false spikes faded from view on approach…

Jing: …the last thing you want is for me to get hurt, isn't it?

Toriel looked away for a moment as she continued to lead him by the hand… she had a small sad smile when she turned her head back but still didn't look at him.

Toriel:… Yes.

[J Ghost]: Ouch… and that was for her… you're testing her aren't you?

[Jing]: I have to… this cannot end with her dead… again… being kind… also needs an understanding of cruelty.

[Karina]: Hey, how's it going?

[Jing]: Better, skipped killing the frog back there… how's Harley?

[Karina]: She might wake up soon… Psychic backlash from a gun of darkness and exposure to Vex versions of her memories… not really gelling well, her ghost says the healing is slow, but it's happening…

Jing focused back on steering the child…

Toriel: Let me test your independence, forgive me for this…

Jing contemplated just sprinting after her to test how well the child glided or blinked… but decided to opt for humoring the goat woman… and looked around the area for a bit… he knew she would be behind the pillar… but complied and strolled to the end all the same… however where Harley had kept quiet, earlier, he would speak out… the local monsters seemed to revere if not outright fear Toriel… he could use that to avert unnecessary bloodshed…

Toriel: Could you wait here while I go run an errand?

Jing did his best to emulate Karina's pouting face that always made him give way to her… hoping it would work… He knew he was at least partially deceiving Toriel… but there was a very good reason… many in fact.

Jing: I'm scared of being alone down here… and that frog… I don't know why it attacked me… can I please stay with you… I don't want to hurt anyone or get hurt…

There was silence for an instant but Toriel smiled and broke it.

Toriel:… you're right, I was being irresponsibly selfish… do you mind following me to my place while it's in a mess?

Jing took the towering Boss monster's right hand… she gripped back gently…

Jing: No…

[J Ghost]: Genius…

[Jing]: Actually I think getting Thorn out of the way was far more important, but this is good too.

[J Ghost]: Did you ever do that to Karina by the way?

[Jing]: What?

[J Ghost]: Understand her feelings and manipulate…

[Jing]: We didn't need to do that, and I wouldn't want to in that manner… that's a story for another time… besides, it's not like I'm coaxing the goat woman to get naked or something…

[J Ghost]: Don't worry, I know…

[Karina]: We know…

Karina had a knack for moving rather silently despite standing a little more than 8 feet tall in her full armor…

[Jing]: Eep…

She placed her hands on his shoulders and squeezed a bit… Jing directed the child to just swipe the entire bowl of monster candy in the following hall and room, which Toriel noticed…

Toriel: No little one, you can't do that… take one only, other kids might fall here and…

Jing kept both hands full of it… Toriel strolled over and picked the child up with both hands… her tone was gentle but now it hinted of some iron and steel.

Toriel: Ok, you can have one handful, please put the rest back in my child… be good.

[Jing]: Sigh, big mama indeed.

Jing realized Toriel wasn't putting the kid down after he relinquished the sugary goodness… indeed, she set the child on the pedestal and went around the child herself, peering, inspecting with intense regard…

Toriel: I was surprised by how light you are… and at your current age based on missing teeth in your smile… which don't seem to be from violence at least… do they give you enough to eat at home? Children younger than you could have triggered the stone panels themselves earlier… I might be wrong because I once cared for an 11 year old girl who fell here… and she stood tall enough to look me in the eye… for a moment I wondered if an adult had fallen in here instead… but there were more regular sized children…

Toriel reached for the bandage and removed it gently… she recoiled on flipping the bandage to see the dressing side… and then her face showed anger, the kind raised by concern.

Toriel: This is filthy… you could have gotten infected… have you used it more than once? My poor child… what has happened to you?

[J Ghost]: Well, that's a way to learn more about the kid…

[Jing]: Heh, this calculated risk is paying off way more than it should ever have.

Toriel: Would that there was a way for me to return upside to have a stern word with your caretakers…

Toriel stopped for a moment, realizing she had possibly said something she shouldn't have… Jing got the kid to jump back onto the floor.

Toriel: That said, come with me small one, you even seem very malnourished…

[J Ghost]: Who could be THAT tall at 11 years old?

[Jing]: You'd be surprised, but let's get moving, I supposed that just proves Karina is taller for now though… what's this kid got, Carotenaemia?

Toriel: I have a strange hunch about you… do you like Butterscotch?

Toriel began to shunt the rock onto a switch, having a far easier time than Harley did initially…

Jing: Well I don't hate it…

Toriel: How about Cinnamon?

Jing: Same.

Toriel: No preference my child?

Jing: I could tell you about what I'd like better instead…

Toriel: Ha ha ha…

They moved on and the triple rock room came up… the rock moved onto the switch on seeing Toriel… the next room… Napstablook was still lying on the floor… only instead of leaving this time he got up…

Napstablook: Ms Toriel!

Toriel: Hello Blooky… could you bring snails down for me again next time you come by? Thank you… and try to smile more, especially if you see this child again yes?

Napstablook: Oooo… Yes… I will… Oooo…

The white bedsheet type ghost wearing headphones faded away from view… They carried on, Toriel spoke up again on the way.

Toriel: Do not learn from him… he has very little reason to be miserable yet he chooses to be…

Jing kept quiet… he knew Toriel was still was trying to find a way to break the bad news about how they were stuck here… they made it to the cracked floor above leaves…

Toriel: I'd tell you to take my hand, but this is a very narrow way, remember my pacing child…

Toriel squatted and picked the kid up again, carrying the child over the puzzle… he had the solution from Harley's first pass through but was bookmarking this one anyway… then came the floor holes with switches below… Toriel shouted into the correct crack in the floor.

Toriel: You lot down there, help me get the switch please!

There was an irritated grunt and moan echoing back up, but the ruins vibrated as the spikes in front were deactivated…

Toriel: Thank you!

[J Ghost]: I was wondering how she'd do it… the air vent won't be as kind to her…

[Jing]: It'd be tight, but I think she would manage.

Jing knew the answers to the rotating colored switches… and Toriel watched him solved the puzzles via the child…

Toriel: It's a relief that at least you can solve these… it means you can read…. I was wondering if your caretakers had failed to even provide a basic education…

Then that was it… not too long the familiar sight of Toriel's home came into view… and she was ushering the child to the new room… she stroked the kid's head.

Toriel: I apologize for the mess… but then I realized it would have been worse to leave you out there by yourself… so thanks for insisting... though… I guess I can't surprise you now, especially since my house is a little tardy and unkempt at the moment.

Jing:…Is there anything else I should know?

Toriel: There's a phone with my number in your room… keep it with you at all times and call me if you get lost or need anything, ok? Have a good rest…

[J Ghost]: Are you really going to sleep?

[Jing]: We'll let the kid… for now I need to update my logs… and Toriel's insights and observations about the kid… could be useful information… we aren't just guiding a kid, there's a bigger puzzle here, and remember… the Vex… what do they want to achieve through us being here?

He moved his eyes as his HUD changed to a mind map that added more details in from his memories… he drew a more lines to the child, adding details, "highly probable background of abuse, reason for climbing mountain: possible suicide? Curiosity?"

[J Ghost]: Might I propose seeking out that Toy Knife Harley had been using earlier? The fact that through the kid you can manifest the derivations we crafted from Will Breaker's heart is certainly useful…

More lines attached to the kid's rectangle in the grid as well…

[Jing]: Very worth studying as well, good call… but we'll let the kid rest first… and patrol these magenta ruins when the kid wakes up.

He checked the shoebox… there was a myriad of children's shoes inside… he fished out the largest pair and regarded it… humoring some thoughts… a second mindmap switched into view, one containing all the details about Karina… he called for her in the Vex dimension.

[Jing]: Big girl!

[Karina]: Yes beloved?

[Jing]: You wouldn't happen to have been around here before, would you?

[Karina]: Hm… why?

[Jing]: I'm entertaining a theory that you might have been a kid who fell down here, Toriel said something about an 11 year old tall enough to look her in the eye…

[Karina]: You do realize I don't have Vex machines to teach me my past, nor was I converted to a guardian on my dying breaths right?

[Jing]: Right… right… "It doesn't matter who you were, only what you will become."

[K Ghost]: Hm…

[Karina]: Focus ghost, can I try a light transfusion to Harley? Would it help?

[K Ghost]: You mean with that old war trophy of yours?

The next morning in the underground… Jing woke to the smell of Butterscotch-Cinnamon pie… he found a slice placed in the room by Toriel and stored it away.

[J Ghost]: An interesting thing for you to note… based on select excerpts of Harley's journey here… the local food is medically beneficial to all injuries… and apparently it doesn't cause you to need to seek a bathroom thereafter either… it's quite amazing.

[Jing]: These guys use gold too, it would be valuable as can be in this day and age without Glimmer.

The kid walked past the stairs that would lead below…

[J Ghost]: Aren't you going to check that out?

[Jing]: Later, we know what going down there will lead to… I for one am not in a rush.

Toriel was still absent from her chair… he made for the kitchen where the leftovers used to bake a pie were still lying around… she was probably still asleep… given the current time.

[J Ghost]: What are you planning?

[Jing]: A creative prod into monster cuisine…

[J Ghost]: What do you mean by that…

[Jing]: Let's make breakfast… and test the properties of this stuff that nourishes you without making one need to crap…

[J Ghost]: I know Thanonauts always gamble with their lives, you better switch to Sunsinger with Fireborn, just to be safe and for the kid's sake…

[Jing]: Already did… I do feel like a kid in some ways looking at all that… No Osiris data on the Vex, no Toland obsession with the Hive… and let's face it, the Cabal have no known truly mysterious otherworldly powers much as I like studying them… just a clean field for me to play and document for once.

[J Ghost]: Hey Karina! He wants to play with monster food!

[Karina]: Let him! I love what happens every time he plays with food!

[J Ghost]: I confess my jealousy at not having a sense of taste.

Toriel awoke a few hours later… feeling contented for the first time in a good while… she stretched and yawned… getting dressed… 6 children had passed through this place and chosen to leave her care… all of their tales didn't end well… she wanted to make sure the current one ended well… a wonderful smell wafted into her nose as she opened the door of her bed room… she was pleasantly surprised but also a little worried and walked urgently to the kitchen…

Jing: Seriously… where are the damn knives… it would be so much easier to… oh hi! Good morning… I made breakfast… sorry about the mess, but… most of it was already here…

She felt some annoyance creep into her mind… but she felt happy about it too… she was happy to actually have somebody to get annoyed with once again… and the sight of this child cooking, and seemingly doing a good job was utterly adorable… she smiled and went around tidying up the kitchen… before joining her new adopted child at the table… she realized she was expected to start on the food first… and obliged…

Toriel: Amazing… simply amazing… where did you learn this?

She sliced into the pancake and waffle stack and found herself eager for more.

Jing: I had a lot of practice…

Toriel found herself pondering the child's abused and underfed look, and unpleasant possibilities came into her mind when adding that together with the amount of culinary finesse she was now putting into her mouth.

Toriel: You… weren't forced to do so were you?

Jing: Er…

Jing was actually in the dark about the child's backstory beyond guesses Toriel herself had thrown out yesterday… he didn't even know the kid's gender in fact…

Toriel: It doesn't matter… I have to be honest with you… there's no way for you to go back to the surface anymore… without putting your life at risk… deep dangerous risk…

Jing continued to eat… he wasn't ready to indulge a discussion that would inevitably lead to a similar confrontation with the one Harley had in front of that door… nor did he feel that danger or risk too much himself… he had faced universe eating, law of physics bending opponents many a time… not alone always… but he and those with him had always come out on top…

Toriel: My child… it's ok, you don't have to hide that you're sad or hurt at this news… in fact… most of them screamed or cried a bit… some earlier… some later…

Jing finished his share of the food hastily… and took his plate and utensils to the kitchen sink…

Jing: Can I… go for a walk? To… think about what you said?

Toriel: I… certainly… please call me if you need my help ok?

He sank into the pile of leaves under the tree outside Toriel's house, sighing as they crinkled and rustled beneath the child's body…

[Jing]: That was close…

[J Ghost]: I get it… you don't feel the way a kid receiving that kind of news would…

[Jing]: Exactly… I can't scream, cry or shout… throw a tantrum the way one would… won't it strike her as odd that I didn't? Anyway… we are going on that walk… er no, not just a walk… a patrol… yeah! We're going to patrol the ruins!

His ghost gave him a "seriously?" type look and when she spoke following the gesture it was sarcastic…

[J Ghost]: Wow… sure, maybe a Froggit Warsat will thud down… or perhaps some Skiff driven by the vegetable thingies will come to try to steal glimmer! Hey look! There's a patrol beacon by commander Toriel!

[Jing]:Ha ha ha... That's actually pretty funny… lets go get the toy knife first anyway… could be useful...

There was a froggit beside the place he recalled Harley getting the knife from… he approached warily…

Froggit: Ribbit… human, don't worry… I won't harm you…

Jing: Hm… then why did one other like you attempt to?

Froggit: Sometimes monsters lash out in fear at what they don't understand… others are loyal to the king's need for human souls… but I help Ms Toriel with her grocery shopping and so I won't… you seem much less scary than some of the other kids who have been here though…

The Froggit flinched as the child's facial expressions changed when he finished that sentence.

Jing: Do I now?

Froggit: I… meant it in a good way… anyway I cooperate with a small white dog and this skeleton who leaves her groceries down there for her… it has a nice view of the city… I'll show you…

Jing: Thanks…

[J Ghost]: Aww…. The wawock and kyute widdle fwoggy woggy… if only I could take a photo out there as myself…

Jing rolled his eyes… he continued following the frog hopping a short distance ahead of him…and indeed there was quite a view… Jing made over to the Toy Knife…

Froggit:…meow…

Jing raised an eyebrow at the Froggit making a feline sound somehow… he realized it was eyeing the plastic blade now in his hand.

Froggit: That thing has been left there for a while… one of the humans tried to leave without letting Toriel know… she tried to climb down… and left it here when she scurried over the wall because I left to get Toriel in a panic… Toriel never touched it after we got here when it was… too late… and I don't dare to touch it either. Toriel cried for days after that… The body was then taken away by the dogs working for the king…

Jing: I see…

Froggit: I felt guilty myself as well when I see it, maybe it's good of you to take that thing away… she waited for me to fall asleep the whole time… very patient… pretending to come by to see me… forming the plan for weeks… but she probably got tired climbing down the wall… here, have some of my gold…

Jing: Really?

The Froggit handed the heavy yellow metal coins over.

Froggit: Really. Thanks for your company, human…

[J Ghost]: So maybe this is how to get through here without killing?

[Jing]: I doubt we can just buy Toriel out of loving us… I'm getting a plan together and I'm going to look like, and feel like a jerk for using it… I hope I come up with a better one in time.

Jing backtracked and found his way to the spider bakesale… he decided to buy a donut and cider, though he didn't eat it, having just cooked a breakfast he was quite pleased with barely an hour ago… and pulled out his Arc Edge… then funneled a Heavy synthesis into the weapon… the toy knife stuck the blade out somehow… the reclaimed heart of Willbreaker and the Hadium blade…

Jing: Nice…

Loox, Vegetoid, Whimsun, a couple more Froggits, Migosp and Moldsmal saw the powerful sword longer than the child was tall seemingly appear… and fled in terror… screaming or shouting optional… Jing went over to where they had been, there was a good amount of gold there and a note spelling "pleas dunt hurt us! taek the munny!" He shouted for them to correct the misunderstanding though he knew it was futile…

Jing: Hey come back! I didn't mean to… ah forget it…

[J Ghost]: Who the heck whips out a monomolecular magic electrical sword in the middle of nowhere?! Are you planning to threaten Toriel with that?

[Jing]: That won't work… if somebody stabbed her by accident she'll die comforting them and saying it's ok… I know her type…

He continued on, now familiar with the puzzles and ignoring the reset spike traps, simply gliding over them after a jump… though he stepped onto a crack and fell down to the floor below… easing his landing with glide… there was a lone ribbon there… it's color long faded… Jing felt a similar resonance in the ribbon to the toy knife and made to grab it…

[J Ghost]: Really?

[Jing]: This place does funny things to human souls that I've never seen elsewhere before that stops them from leaving for the beyond… as a thanonaut… I am more sensitive to death and the afterlife than most guardians… I can tell you this ribbon… belonged to the girl who also owned this knife… before she fell off climbing down… and died from the fall…

He climbed back up the vent…

[Jing]: I should head back, would that I could stay here to study and research forever… there would be so much worth learning… the food! The monster's biology! The way people are sealed off from the afterlife somehow in here!

[J Ghost]: Maybe we could find this place in our time?

[Jing]: If we ever get back… like I said… the Vex want a slice of this pie too… and I don't know what it is… that scares me.

Later, back at Toriel's house… she was surprised her latest adopted child knew how to do laundry… and applied her fire magic to dry the wet clothes that had been hung… she was pleased… but also just a bit saddened at the same time… she knew it wasn't considered normal for a human child of that age to be this adept in housekeeping... at least one who led a comfortable life. She resolved to make sure she would provide that… did the child leave the place to cry and not bother her? To appear strong? Toriel knew she only wished to comfort… what could have the world done to a child that they might regard a mother's shoulder to cry on as unwanted pity?

She heard the pitter patter of little feet behind her and turned… it couldn't be… she was stunned for a moment… Chara was dead… she had been buried personally… then she rubbed her eyes… it was her latest child, just wearing the clothes her own son and Chara used to…

Jing: I'm sorry, is something wrong? My clothes would be wet… so I grabbed a change from the cupboard…

Toriel:… Just something in my eye… you know… my son used to wear that exact look… I had intended to start giving you an education later today but… maybe it's better I share some hard truths with you instead… since you are so inquisitive by nature…

Toriel reached for a group of photo albums… she hesitated over one, but pulled out the newest looking one in her shelf… she saw Jing seated on her arm chair… she laughed… it looked comically oversized for the child…

Toriel: You'll have to make do with my lap little one… let me show you the other humans who fell here… and my son…

In the Vex dimension Jing beckoned Karina over…

Jing: Even the girl you said was unusually tall?

Toriel: Yes… they were all very special to me… but I hope unlike them you won't choose to leave… because… Asgore… took something from all of them for great evil…

That night… Jing used glide to hover down the stairs to Toriel's basement where he knew the exit from the ruins was… he did his best to study the door, reasoning he'd have to find a way through it since he couldn't get to the balcony without risking harming the Froggit next to it… he sneezed as he went back to bed… it had been rather dusty down there… and the only light had been from Arc edge at this time of day.

The night of the next day after a both experienced Toriel's first day as a teacher… Jing had taken an extra long afternoon nap to make up for the inevitable lack of sleep he would impose on the child through the escape attempt… he put the child's original attire back on… as he hung Chara's clothes back he made another note on Chara and Toriel as well as her original son Asriel… he felt a little filthy now, having worn the clothes of Chara who in a different timeline had quite thoroughly destroyed the Earth.. The experience was still fresh and days ago in his prespective.

[Jing]: Alright… I've got my plan A-Z… you know what I'll be up to right Jeanie?

[J Ghost]: While I am happy to know and advise… you do realize I'm stuck in here with the real you, and only your light gets out there right?

[Jing]: It'll have to be enough… I don't want to smack Froggit, so… we'll have to go through the door below… I reckon some Solar grenades will eat through it's hinges… then we can run through…

[J Ghost]: Hinges… that thing will make a loud noise when it hits the floor… with the way noise down here echoes upstairs… there's no way she won't be hot on our heels…

[Jing]: We'll go to voidwalker once the door is down… and I'll keep blinking until we made it to… Felwinter's Peak…

[J Ghost]: You mean Snowdin…

[Jing]: Quite so… ready?

He glided down the stairs to avoid making noise but he realized something was wrong… because his glide output wasn't kicking up anymore dust as he landed… nonetheless he ran silently and rounded the corner…

Jing: The door should be just about… eh?

He felt something soft and warm covered in fabric in his way… he pulled out the Arc edge through the Toy Knife for light… and fingers snapped at the same time… the hallway was aglow with magical fire…and blue Arc sword light… Toriel blocked the way.

[J Ghost]: Uh-oh.

[H Ghost]: Ok… I take it the goat lady is stopping the kid from leaving again.

Toriel: I knew you were the most intelligent child I had ever met, even capable with cooking and helping me with the household and wise beyond your years… to the point you seemed almost unchildlike at times… but this isn't how you should be using your abilities…

Jing: Ha… how did you know…

Toriel: A mother knows… I came down here to clear it up, give you another place to play and learn without all the dust… while you had your afternoon nap earlier I discovered your foot and hand prints leading up to and all over the door.

Jing:… There's no way to spare you the pain you've been through… or what I was about to do, I knew would hurt you as well… I'm sorry…

Toriel bent down, she was clearly angry, but she smiled gently.

Toriel: How about you go back to your room and promise me you won't try this again? Please… take what I said about my other children seriously… I can't bear to lose you to… him.

That final word was spat out with disgust and venom… in a tone that struck fear into Jing… because he wouldn't ever want to hear somebody else refer to him in such a manner.

Jing: That… that's a promise I can't make… I'm sorry…

Toriel: You… clearly aren't just a human child though… You move like you know how to use that blade… prove to me that it is enough, that you are strong enough to survive, and you may pass through!

[J Ghost]: It's happening again…

[H Ghost]: Please tell me you have a plan just for this?

[Jing]: I… don't know if I can bring myself to… use it.

The fire waves roared at him as Toriel swept her hands… he leapt and glided over the first… and slashed away at the second… she kept her eyes on him, showing dull surprise that the child had some form of limited flight… until he landed from the glide expiring she didn't attack at all…

Jing: Toriel! Please! It doesn't have to be like this!

He formed the Arc forged guard as a spiral barrage of fire rolled towards him… the Arc edge held steady for now.

Toriel: You can go back upstairs… I'll forgive you for this… had you been able to fly long enough to survive… you wouldn't have remained fallen down in here now, would you my child?

He noticed a slow forming orange glow at the child's feet and jumped backwards… it ignited spectacularly…

[Jing]: She's got some different new tricks compared to Harley's run through here! Like she's holding back less!

[H Ghost]: Yeah well, we didn't know we could do that with the sword until sushi girl!

Some embers burnt the sides of the child, but he ignored the sensation and did his best to continue fighting evasively… he kept the toy knife and through the kid's hands threw a warlock's palm thrust out at her… the projected force struck Toriel in the stomach… she winced a bit… and sent back another barrage of spiraling flames… this time the walls themselves igniting… Jing and Toriel shared a brief instant of eye contact.

[Jing]: There's no point hitting her, the only way she'll admit to the kid being strong enough is being scattered to the winds…

He slid under the first arc of spiraling fire and jumped into a glide to hover above the rest of the assault… he decided to take his altitude advantage and glided over Toriel… flinging a Solar grenade at the door… Toriel was surprised at the child possessing not just a magical sword but power over fire as well… but she recovered and from the area before the door sprouted an intense inferno that…

[Jing]: She is so damn powerful, there's no way we can get the kid to break the door down without hurting her…

Toriel used a series of floor fire bursts to force Jing back away from the door…

[H Ghost]: There is a way… you already said you have one…

She changed back to the ember spirals, Jing contemplated consuming monster food to nurse the injuries the child had accrued…

[J Ghost]: We do… but… it's just a different kind of pain then…

He used the Arc edge to weather out another breath of flame from the walls…

[Jing]: Go back to your guardian… lives aren't a game to be played.

He hurled another Solar grenade aimed at the door, which Toriel matched with a fireball, causing it to explode in the air… he reckoned he would wait for another cooldown to complete and try again… he refused to hurt Toriel, but he also knew now Toriel was holding back, keeping her attack deliberately weak to avoid killing the child… but really letting loose when he closed in on the door.

As he parried and guarded against another wave of fire, mixing glide in to evade where possible… he pondered this option… was it fair to the child? Was this plan truly the best? He didn't know better… but in the short time he had spent with the woman, Toriel had truly grown of him, and he, Jing… fond of her… he didn't want to hurt her… how he wanted to be in that room as himself with Karina by his side to try to explain the situation as Toriel certainly seemed reasonable enough to attempt to help them… and certainly intelligent enough to grasp the threat of the Vex…

But instead here he was in the body of a child who seemed to have a life filled with suffering who had chosen to climb a mountain and fall into an underworld inhabited by monsters… and indeed, perception was reality… despite the sword and his gliding… his solar grenades… trying to win her over and get to a situation where he could come out with the truth without seeming like a kid with an over active imagination… he was cursed to operate from the body of a child here and now… and looked like one who had a hard life while at it.

How he would love to stroll back into the Vault of Glass and kill Atheon again for forcing this upon him if the opportunity ever arose again… He parried the final wave of fire before noticing the orange hot glow on the floor again and jumped off… the fire erupted after he was clear…

It was horrible… this fight between two people who didn't want to hurt each other was horrible… that they both knew each other's intent yet refused to back down was even worse. But he knew that the way he had foreseen needing to use and planned for was now to be called into service… however terrible it was.

He decided not to refill the Arc Edge with heavy ammo when the blade's energy went dry guarding against the fireballs bouncing throughout the hall once more… Toriel noticed and he saw a tear run down her eye as she shifted the fireballs to actually loom close but not hit the child… the orange glow appeared below his feet… the child was suffering from burns and he felt each and every one.

His solar grenade was ready… he flung it at the door, this time using a high arc… Toriel looked at it and made to stop it from melting the door further… He stepped off the orange floor glow… which belched fire… and immediately sprinted back and parked the child atop it… he screamed as the flames scorched the child and himself… but refusing to move despite the horrible burning because this was the only way he could think of and use now…

Toriel placed her hands over her mouth in shock and horror, no longer caring that the solar grenade had impacted the door and ran over, cancelling all her magical flame attacks, leaving enough for visibility only… she picked up the child's body… and leaned her ear onto the chest… the heart was no longer beating… in the vex dimension, Karina had sprinted over when she heard him yell from being burned so intensely… they were both dead… The walls went out as realization hit Toriel and she screamed in despair and agony… as a red soul rose from the body… split down the middle and shattered.

Toriel: Noooooooooooooooooooo! My child… please… I'm sorry… please answer me… please… please… please… please…

Teardrops rained down on the corpse... Toriel felt that empty hollow feeling which had been so well filled in the last three days returned… a gnawing pit of loneliness devouring all the joy she had been given by this poor child… leaving an even bigger hole in her soul...

Toriel: Pathetic isn't it? I couldn't save a single child and… ha… now… ha ha ha ha… I've proven… that I'm no better than him… no b…better than Asgore… ha… ha… ha…

Toriel slammed her first on the wall, her other hand clawed at it, as if she could scratch the grief out of herself by attacking the wall… she felt her finger break and her nails chip and bleed… she didn't care, she wasn't paying enough penance for being a murderer… she didn't care that her horns top broke when she slammed her head into it as well…

Toriel: What… did you do Toriel?! WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!

Jing sighed from the beyond… watching… he had chosen to do it like this, and he could make it right, but that didn't erase how it had happened…

The hall was dark as Toriel no longer bothered to keep it lighted. Her eyes shut as she sobbed from what had just transpired… she didn't care that suddenly there was some light in the corner from her eyes… perhaps some stray fire had started… what would it matter now… this was a place where a mad woman lived now… a mad woman who in losing her children had taken the life of one more… perhaps the flames should have this mad woman…

But what touched her was warm and gentle… and familiar… the hands of the child… she opened her eyes and saw the familiar small form wreathed in flames with burning orange wings… but the flames didn't burn her…

Toriel: How…? Forgive me… my child…

Jing: Forgive me as well…

Toriel: I couldn't bear to lose you… I was so afraid of being bereaved… and alone again…

Jing: And I was… simply terrible for making you experience that…

The flames of a Fireborn Radiance ebbed… despite her pained hands she hugged the child, overcome with relief and released from grief and guilt now that the child was fine despite all that had just happened… Jing returned the embrace to the much larger woman… one furry finger wiping tears and a trickle of blood from a horn out of her eyes.

Toriel: Is this not a hallucination? You have the power to defy death?

Jing: Don't your hands and head hurt? I'm so sorry…. But yes, I am fine…

Toriel: I… won't stop you from leaving again… but if you do…

Jing: I won't return…

She stood up, carrying the child with her as she did so… Jing understood the other meaning of her words… "please make it home."

Toriel: Be good… my child.

Toriel set the child down… Jing slowly walked to the door… Toriel smiled a small sad smile while still tearing at the eyes… and nodded as if to say "don't delay our parting any longer." He put his hand on the door, which fell over backwards with a deafening metal thump… having been so badly damaged in battle…

Toriel:… Goodbye…

Jing continued onwards… Karina held his hand in the Vex space…

[Karina]: Beloved… are you ok?

[Jing]: Should I be?

[Karina]: Maybe later, but if you're not for now… I could take over…

[Jing]: What do you mean…

[Karina]: I mean… I want you to know I know, the ghosts know… you did your best back there… and even if there was a better way, based on what we know there's no way it would have not been sad…

[Jing]: Let's just hope we don't end up needing to find that even better way than… at least she's still alive here, that's something.

Jing frowned and so did the child however, when he encountered Flowey again after walking a fair distance… he thought at his ghost and she began to play the soundtrack which he asked for… shame he couldn't hear it through the kid's ears.

Flowey: Clever. Verrrryyy clever. You think you're really smart, don't you?

Jing: _**You always hurt the one you love…**_

Flowey: In this world, it's kill or be killed.

Jing: _**The one you shouldn't hurt at all…**_

Flowey had trouble keeping up an intimidating visage when his face betrayed that he realized his threats were ineffectual and the child wasn't even taking him seriously… even worse… it seemed like this timeline's Chara was taking prior knowledge he confided and mocking him with it…

Flowey: So you were able to play by your own rules, you spared the life of a single person…

Jing: _**You always take the sweetest rose…**_

His sing-song taunt cum reply was clearly working… he began customizing his current Solar grenade charge… as Flowey seemed to get flustered…

Flowey: You regretted killing her with one bladestroke so you came back to break her heart instead… that's worse than anything I have ever tried… Yeep!

Flowey ducked into the ground and burrowed away as a Solar grenade arced high into the air and landed where he had been trying to intimidate the child from.

Jing: _ **And crush it… till the petals fall…**_

Jing thought about the battle with Chara just days ago… then he regained his composure and remember what was at stake and needed to be addressed in this time and place… slowing that grenade's flight speed was correct… he turned and kissed Karina on the cheek in the Vex realm and she pulled him into a greedy possessive hug in response… Toriel had the power of the strong… it would take time, but her broken heart would heal… and more importantly… she was still alive this time.

[Jing]: Jeanie, let's go through the footage of the place outside these doors and what transpired.


	23. A Symphony of Frost and Flame

**A Symphony of Frost and Flame**

The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.

-Theodore Roosevelt

[Jing]: Maybe I should watch everything in advance when I can find a place to put the kid's feet up…

[J Ghost]: That would be prudent…

[Jing]: For now, I think a dog whistle would be useful… How you doing big girl?

[Karina]: Perfect… beloved, lend me your brain a moment… do you think I should hand Harley the Chalice of Light?

[Jing]:…I'm not sure it'll be good for her… it's a hive artifact for one… and well, we've all interacted with light that was never our own when attacking Oryx… those tended to backfire and have a lot of dangerous side effects…

A brief memory of Harley blowing up due to unstable light passed through his mind he and Kerrigan were caught in that explosion, but being warlocks they used Fireborn to return onto their feet and continue shooting Golgoroth in the gut…

[Jing]: But… don't let me stop you from trying! Maybe I'll calculate it for you later… Jeanie, use the old Death singer's gaze I used to wear and run tests on it, then give it to the big girl later…

[J Ghost]: Alright, wiring it up with Tolands journal and our field data…

The doors to the ruins locked up behind them as they exited…

[J Ghost]: You want to deal with the spy camera?

[Jing]: It feels like it would be a good choice wouldn't it? But then whoever's seeing through it will see I'm not killing anyway and… ok, I'm gonna obey my instincts on this one…

He flung a Solar grenade into the bush and camera… the bush burnt to ashes while the acrid smell of burning plastic filled the air… the melted snow stopped the fire from spreading however… leaving a stand that glowed with a molten orange lump… he then continued on the path to what he knew was Snowdin…

It was late at night or way too early in the morning and much colder than usual, a wind howled through the place… and instead of enjoying a pleasant winter stroll… Jing actually found himself shivering… he threw Solar grenades every instant their cool down expire on patches with lesser vegetation to keep the kid warm… He found the familiar branch that Harley had encountered which was what he presumed Sans had snapped… He tried his hand at it… he couldn't lift it with the child's strength… but dragging it wasn't too bad… which he did so… he made it to San's sentry station and dropped the dry branches behind it… then turned back to Papyrus' ramshackle gate-barrier thing on the bridge and charged his Bolt Caster with a heavy synthesis, unhesitatingly hacking apart the non-functional structure into blocks of wood and planks the child's body managed to heave back to the sentry station with some jets of glide mixed in…

Jing: Not good to keep throwing star fire around in people's plain view, heh…

He soon got a fire going by a scorch palm thrust on the drier piles of wood and sank into the chair of San's sentry station… when the temperature rose again, he would make a move… he opened the cupboard and found some hotdog buns… hotdog relish… watersausages in a box labled "hot cats" and a proper pack of hotdogs… he immediately decided to use what was around him.

[J Ghost]: Really now… if you had watched the whole way through instead of just the Snowdin arc… you'd be thinking twice about this…

[Jing]: Why? I'm just cooking one of his hotdogs, and I certainly am not going to kill his brother, I'll even give him gold for it.

[J Ghost]: True… your path has been fairly deviant compared to Harley's…

While the place did get a little brighter, the temperature soon rose enough to move again, but Jing took cover when he recognized Papyrus' voice in the distance…

Papyrus: Sans! Where are you…

He peered over the edge of the sentry station, concealing the child as best he could based on where Papyrus' footsteps had treaded.

Papyrus: Ugh… maybe he's still in bed… his door was locked, but I heard no snoring! What if a human comes by today…

He heard the footsteps go away and slumped back into the sentry station… the hot dog he had been preparing should be in perfect condition right now… only a slightly portlier skeleton in a blue hoodie was happily chomping away at it in front of him while chugging down a bottle of ketchup… he was more alarmed at how his sword logic derived sense prickled heavily than the figure before him.

Sans: Heya pal, you make a mean hot dog by the way.

Jing calmly began to prepare another one… Sans and the child's eyes met… and instantly he knew he was being studied and that knew that Sans knew he was doing the same to the skeleton… he even gleamed an attempt to conceal surprise by Sans when he realized Jing was unsurprised by the hot dog steal or ability to teleport.

Sans: Heh… heh heh… funny… I feel like I'm actually meeting somebody I can really relate to in a long time…

Jing: As am I… must be nice to relax and take a break like this, we have much to discuss when there is a better time or place to permit it…

Their eye contact continued, but both had subtly changed their expressions to the point where nothing more could be garnered or understood by this…

Sans:…How do I know I can trust you then?

Jing: The cruel truth is you have nothing but my word to go by that I am doing this bearing no ill will… and, that I am against many things and forces I don't know how to explain to you about… that too... and I have seen that… I do have the power to make things better… although I must question how successful I really am.

Sans:… alright kid… my brother will be back soon… so… we'll find a way to chat… do me a favor… he'd love to see a human… can you humor him?

Jing: Will I get killed along the way?

Sans:… probably not… damn, you're one dark minded kid… you know that?

Jing: When you go to the edge of what you know and stare into that void… and it looks back at you… you can find yourself laughing at your existence…

Sans:… ok… I think I do want to help you… anything I can do now?

Jing: Something small I can carve easily.

Sans handed him a small bone that could easily be held in between a thumb and the index finger of the child…

Jing: Couldn't have asked for better… you're gonna tell your brother about me right?

Sans: Don't worry, you look like you got this… don't you?

Jing: Good question, I'm not making an assumption to the answer…

Sans: Stay down.

Papyrus returned again…

Papyrus: Sans! Have you found a human yet?

Sans: Yup.

Papyrus: Perfect! I'll go get ready… you better not jape me with that lamp of yours again…

Sans: Why? It made light… on the situation.

Sans turns and shrugs at you, winking.

Papyrus: Grrrrrrr… you… so where is the human?

Sans: Right here actually…

Papyrus: Whatever! Get them to hurry up!

Papyrus left again…

Jing: Do I have to pay for the hot dog?

Sans: Probably not, it's better than my brother's pasta… by a ton…

Jing: A Skele-ton?

Sans: Heh… good one kid, try a femur…

Jing realized that while he probably was able to, he actually was out of practice with this branch of humor.

Jing: Not on your wishbone… ok, I can't do this kind of joke anymore, you're out of my league.

Sans: I'm not so sure…

A sound of a door cracking open and shutting… and Sans was gone… Jing dusted himself off, put out the fire and spotted a water sausage atop the sentry station as he chowed down on the extra he had been preparing…

Jing: Hmph, hot dog's on the house.

He ceased control of the child for a moment…

[Jing]: Hows our patient?

[Karina]: Gonna give her the chalice of light in a bit… see if it helps…

[K Ghost]: We contemplated how it could defy Crota's heal suppression… and maybe out here… it's properties…

[Jing]: I get it… might work…

He focused and returned to the Christmas card land of Snowdin forest… he noted the sparkle in front of him and interacted with it…

[Jing]: Interesting properties… like a vex conflux but one I can use… or the kid can use… would that I could research this thing with a proper lab setup… hm… the frostbite from earlier is wearing away too…

[J Ghost]: What do you make of it?

[Jing]: A healing bookmark in a game book perhaps?

[J Ghost]: Hey is that…

Snowdrake approached… stuttering out a cringe-demanding pun… Jing grew irritated.

Jing: Snowdrake… go home…

Snowdrake: What? No! My dad doesn't…

[Jing]: I'll art up a solar grenade, show him the bit where he dies.

Jing: I came from… a place like this, but I have seen terrible things… you being a victim… your dad and mom love you very much…

Snowdrake: My mom… did…

Jing: I see… then, isn't it more important for you two to be closer to each other? You're all he has of her now you know…

He flung the solar grenade a fair distance away from them both… it spoke and projected an orange tinted record from Harley's point of view…

[

Snowdrake: Please… stay away… please… I…

Harley advanced…

Harley: Beg me… and I might…

Snowdrake: Please let me go… I… I have a mum and dad who love me very much… they… they'll be sad if I…

Harley pursed her lips and waved a no-no finger…

Harley: Insincere lying hypocrite… didn't you tell me you hated your dad?

Snowdrake: No… I… I was angry… I…ran away when mom… and… and then dad…

Harley: Ah… always so rash and hasty… like we once were… don't worry… you won't hate your dad anymore…

Snowdrake: I miss you mom… and dad… I'm sorry… to both of you…

Snowdrake was slashed between the eyes… he didn't die immediately… lying there screaming… before finally turning to dust…

]

When the grenade stopped Snowdrake was backing away in horror and confusion.

Snowdrake: You… human, what are you! Stay away from me! I'm… getting out of here…

He watched Snowdrake flee… but he was satisfied…

[J Ghost]: Too real… yet too…

[Jing]: They can hate and be afraid of me… and be alive…

He opened the box on the road… and pulled out the tough glove… it was worn and smelled centuries old… and he felt something resonating within it… he didn't bother with the note written by a supposed box lover.

Jing: Hm… interesting… I could see Big Girl using this… heh…

He kept the glove and moved on… Papyrus and Sans were waiting down the path…

Sans: Alright Paps… heres…. The human!

Papyrus seemed unimpressed.

Papyrus: Sans… usually you put more effort than just a rock…

Sans: So what's that behind the rock?

Papyrus: Wowie… Sans… is that…

Sans: Yup…

Jing watched them spin again… it was actually somewhat funny, but rather random…

Papyrus: Prepare yourself human! You are in a domain watched over by I… The great Papyrus! Be prepared for trial by puzzles! You will be japed! You will be punished…

Sans: Heh, PUN-ished…

Sans shrugged and winked again.

Papyrus: Sans! You are ruining my important royal guard declaration! How am I supposed to be popular and important if I don't issue a good speech before capturing the human!

Sans: Well, you could be said to have left them… SPEECH-less.

Jing found himself suppressing a chuckle by this point. Papyrus stomped the ground throwing a mini-tantrum… then he looked at the child again having composed himself.

Papyrus:… Ok, speechless it is then! Human, prepare for capture after being tested by a gauntlet of puzzles! Nyeheheheheheheh!

Papyrus sprinted off with his homemade armor forcing a silly gait of exaggerated gestures… Jing approached Sans…

Sans: Don't worry, he's harmless…

Jing: That's actually a good reason to be worried though, isn't it?

Sans closed his eyes and sighed…

Sans:…if only you were wrong when you said that…

Jing: But he wouldn't be him if it were otherwise, no?

Sans: …let's just all try to have a good time eh?

Jing: Were it so easy…

Sans: It can if you let it… I chose to long ago…

Sans winked… Jing saw him smiling but the way the skeleton's eyes twinkled betrayed what he was trying to conceal behind the expression… he wondered if even telling Sans the truths of the transpired matters would be of any help… concealed was a wounded soul deeply touched by despair until it accepted that as part of existence… Sans realized Jing's skill in non-verbal communication and Orwellian body language interpretation was comparable to his own, through that little leak of his.

Jing: I think you and I have a lot to talk about after this…

Sans: Heh.

Progressing onward he reached Doggo's sentry station… but stood out of eye shot… he wondered if the anthromorphic dog within could smell him already… He took note of the smoldering dog treats in the distance… for now he kept the Arc edge away… and leapt up with glide… landing on the sentry station's roof… he pulled the freshly craved dog whistle out and blew into it as hard as possible…

Doggo: Ooooooooooo…. What's that sound…. My ears hurt! Where did it come from?

He waited until Doggo stepped out of the station and looked around… silently shifting his position to stay out of sight lines… until Doggo was checking the direction he had originally come from he dropped off the roof, gliding to where the smoldering dog treats were and planted a solar grenade at the nearest tree he landed a fair distance away and sprinted off… he could hear doggo panicking behind as the tree toppled from the solar grenade burning through it's trunk…

Doggo: Bow-wow… this is bad… Undyne's gonna shave all my fur for this! A fire after she told me not to smoke! Where's the fire extinguisher in my station?! I can't see it because it's not moving… at least it's only one tree…

[J Ghost]: It won't spread, right?

[Jing]: It'll look like a typical cigarette fire… but I don't see it spreading in the current temperature, weather and I doubt it'll even burn the whole fallen tree, don't worry.

A sign surrounded by ice smooth enough to slide on greeted his sights when he stopped to take a breather… Lesser dog came forward barring sword and shield…

[Jing]: Arc edge, heavy ammo synth…

[J Ghost]: You're not going to…

[Jing]: Of course not!

The toy knife extended into a blade and Jing flared the Arc forged guard… the lesser dog cringed at the sight and whimpered from the bombardment of sensations… it wasn't just intimidated… it was feeling the true legacy of willbreaker… and living up to the blade's name, Lesser dog turned and fled on all fours… the toy knife's unnatural addition vanished and Jing slid to the left path out of curiosity…

Jing: Oh cool, somebody made a snowman!

Snowman: I wasn't made, but yes… that is what I am…

Jing: My apologies… how are you?

[J Ghost]: Aren't you surprised?

[Jing]: I don't think I can be anymore with how "anything goes" seems to be the dominant law of aesthetic physics here.

Snowman: Stuck… because I am immobile…

Jing: How do you cope with it?

Snowman: I have a plan… will you help me with it?

Jing: I don't know, you want me to get some equipment together and move you? It'll take a while but…

Snowman: No need for that just yet, wonderful as it sounds… here, take this piece of me with you far away…

Jing: Won't it melt?

Snowman: I'm made of magic, don't worry… I was moved through Hotland harmlessly… I am made of snow, but it's not normal snow…

Jing: Ok, but if you are wrong, I can't help you on that hereafter.

Snowman: Thank you, human.

He took the snowman piece and headed back to the sign in ice and took the remaining path… there was a patch of plowed snow in front of him, behind it were Papyrus and Sans…

Papyrus: You took your time human! Behold… this puzzle will administer an electric shock to you when you walk upon it… until you find the correct path! Nyeheheheheheh!

Jing: Hold up a minute, you want to capture me, right?

Papyrus: Er... yes…?

Jing: So… why did you even leave a correct path for me to find and use? Why not just let it zap me and then take me away?

Papyrus: Uh… because it wouldn't be fair if you didn't have a genuine chance?

Jing: No… I don't think you really want to capture me deep down…

Papyrus: Of course I do! It's the only way I can prove myself to Undyne and join the Royal Guard!

Jing: Ah…

Sans chuckled.

Sans: Don't forget to give'em the thing Papyrus…

Papyrus: Oh right! Human, take this orb… it'll be needed for you to…

Jing and the child slapped their foreheads… the hand slowly wiping down their mugs… he followed up with another hand because he was that filled with the initial urge to facepalm and drag… Sans turned away sniggering, trying to avoid bursting out in laughter… he knew what was coming from the way the kid's face twitched.

Jing: Wow… you're just a bad trap setter alright? Like really just… baaaaaaaad… if I didn't want to get caught by you what makes you think I would even want to hold that orb in the first place?! Why doesn't this thing, just shock me when I step on it… Why did you, tell me about it?! Why did you tell me what it would do to me?! You're supposed to catch me! Trap me! Not play these…

Papyrus: Because I only want to catch you and hurt nobody else?

Jing calmed down… forcing the solar light to stop flaring out of his eyes and the child's… Papyrus started to come over to hand him the orb but got shocked due to a mis-step… Jing turned around and hit the kid's head against the nearest tree since he couldn't find a desk to perform a headdesk for his escalating levels of surreal exasperation at Papyrus…

Jing: Forget it, I'll go over there and get it from you…

He jumped and glided over to Papyrus and took the orb from the lankier skeleton… Sans' smile seemed to be genuine for an instant as he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes…

Jing: Right, now I'll go back and do it to find the route for…

Papyrus put a gloved boney hand on the kid's shoulder.

Papyrus: It's alright human… if you can fly like that, I guess you have already solved it… though it wasn't the way it should be solved… but you did… Nyeheheheh!

He watched Papyrus run off in that silly manner due to his clunky homemade armor restricting mobility… he tossed the orb over to Sans who caught it…

Sans: I'm having a better time than I thought I would, ha…

Jing: I shout like that at people who are bad at their jobs all the time…

Sans: Perhaps you'd be interested to know he isn't being paid yet?

Jing: Maybe because people who are overly energetic but not too intelligent are a burden in places of work…

Sans' pupils vanished for a moment when he finished that sentence…

Sans: I won't judge how you think, but that bit, stinks.

The sound of a click happened and Sans was gone.

[J Ghost]: You know, if you watched everything in advance you'd be aware that was quite the nerve you touched.

[Jing]: Of course it is… I don't need to see beyond Harley killing the skinny one to know that…

He found an extra plank left beside the wooden bridge… and pulled out the Arc Edge again, staring to carve it while selectively exposing bits of it to a solar grenade to make it easier… Karina came over in the vex dimension. She rested her head on his shoulder.

[Karina]: What're you up to as the kid beloved?

[Jing]: Snowboarding. How's Harley?

[Karina]: Still out…

[Jing]: Just be careful with the chalice… it's light but it's also partly decayed into what we stood in to shoot Golgoroth with… your head's heavy big girl, I needa get up.

[Karina]: Heh.

He crossed the bridge and was about to mount the board when he saw what seemed to be a monster ice cream sales man, intrigued he held onto the board first and went over…

?:I don't get it… I start from before sunrise and this is the perfect weather for it… why is business so…

Jing: Heya, anything selling?

?: Oh a customer! Nice cream! The frozen treat that warms your heart!

Jing: Start me off with one…

Nice cream salesman: Here you go! Have a nice day!

Jing didn't regret parting with some gold for this… he even felt good on the first bite… like the day would be perfect… and things would work out for the best… he plodded on and found Sans…

Sans: I'd share a crack with you about fried snow, but I think we're up for better jokes than that.

Jing: Oh, boiling water? Water vapor? A little leftover rancid cooking oil? A burnt hand from all the skipping that would result?

Sans: Heh…

Jing: Anyway I didn't quite mean your brother is dumb, he just needs to slow down to think more… like you… us.

The skeleton shrugged.

Sans: Anyway, this area's a dead end… but there might be some details you should take note off from it first.

Jing: Gotcha…

He dropped the snowboard and with a use of glide as propulsion rode towards the 2 sentry stations…

[Jing]: His… hers… right… hmm smell ratings… Jeanie, take notes…

[J Ghost]: Got it boss…

He went back and waved at Sans as he noticed a snowball in what resembled a frozen golf course and began to play with it, knocking the ball with calculated kicks off his snowboard towards a hole in the distance… he scored, but didn't care for the flag that raised from the hole and moved on… Papyrus was there… and somehow so was Sans…

Sans: Heya, I made this one, try to enjoy it…

Papyrus: Sans?! Is the puzzle to locate a puzzle?!

Sans: It's right there.

Papyrus: Oh…

Jing picked up the note as a child… noting the lack of a pen or pencil being supplied he'd use solar light in the precise amount to singe the paper and solve the word search he had been presented in a manner that resembled black ink… it didn't take too long, since this was clearly made for kids… he strode over with the solved word search… Papyrus snatched it despite him attempting to hand it to Sans…

Papyrus: A word search?!

Sans: You did tell me to help set a puzzle…

Papyrus:… I suppose they did solve it…

Jing: You might want to throw something else at me…

Papyrus: Oh, would you like to try a junior jumble instead?

Sans: That's for baby bones…

Papyrus: Oh? Human! Resolve this dispute! Which is harder?

Jing: Er…

Sans jabbed a finger at his lankier brother and winked…

Jing: Junior jumble.

Sans: Hah! See Sans? The human has excellent taste! Nyeheheheheheheh!

Papyrus left the area, leaving Sans with Jing again.

Sans: Thanks…

Jing: Don't mention it… ever… I'd never actually feel a difference in difficulty…

Sans: You make one pretty smart kid then…

Jing snowboarded on and paused at a microwave, a sparkle and a plate of spaghetti on a table… he picked up the note and speed read it instantly…

[Jing]: Feh! …won't notice I am not progressing and outright says it and does a gloating laugh, on paper!

A thin layer of ice had glued the plate of spaghetti from condensed water that flowed to the bottom of the plate… a little more cautious use of scorch in slow discharge instead of a palm strike freed the plate… which Jing put into the microwave provided… then he had to power by switching to storm caller… this cumulated in regret when he finally spooned the spaghetti into his mouth.

Jing: Bleeeaaaarrgggh! Where did he learn to cook?! Oh my God!

[Karina]: Are you ok?

She watched her lover pop off his warlock helmet and repeatedly wipe his tongue. He had just tasted something unforgettable.

[Jing]: My taste buds are screaming "what are you trying to do to us?!"

[Karina]: Nowhere near your grade?

[Jing]: You do know I could have just work as a cook or chef in the city right? I still get head hunted by restaurant owners.

[Karina]: Yes, I do, its one of the amazing things being with you offers…

She pulled off her own Spektar helmet and pulled him into a possessive overpowering kiss on the lips… her tongue easily flicked his lips open and had its way in his mouth.

[Jing]: As good a mouth wash as I can ask for…

[J Ghost]: Would you like a memory telemetry?

[Karina]: I'll pass, unless it can wake Harley…

[Jing]: It just might.

[Karina]: Ghost, give her the chalice…

[K Ghost]: Ok…

[J Ghost]: You might actually want to get back to guiding the kid before you prove the skeleton's note correct.

Jing noted a mouse nibbling at the spaghetti… it flinched in a comical manner, thrashing around and rolling… then popping snow into its mouth and scampering back into its' mouse hole.

[Jing]: Well, at least my opinion isn't unique… let's get moving…

He pulled out a flask from inside his robes in the Vex dimension and took a swig, the mix of tea leaves blended to a perfect brew he made only boiled for himself…

[J Ghost]: Alright, instead of turning south, there's an area with a switch that had vines pressing it here when Harley first passed through… you should go straight and…

Jing reached the spot and swept some now aside… but instead of a switch there was a note from Papyrus again,

"Well human, I know you can fly now, spike gates aren't going to stop you from puzzle skipping the next few… so Sans told me just not to set them up… it's lazy. But he has a point, don't think there's nothing else in your way yet though!

Yours and going to catch you… the great and soon to be royal guard… Papyrus!"

[Jing]: Huh… neat! Maybe he really is going to help us…

[J Ghost]: How much you think he knows?

[Jing]: …it's more important that we know what he shouldn't know… any other information is to buy his trust…

[J Ghost]: Do you actually care about him? Them? All these beings who are only called monsters in name only?

[Jing]: Of course I do, I'm not killing anyone right?

Jing sensed something… he was being stalked… this time not by Sans either… he was aware who the assailants would be nonetheless… the hooded axe wielding figures of Dogamy and Dogaressa surrounded him, barring axes… he popped the dog whistle into the kids mouth and blew the hardest and longest he ever had… repeatedly… the dog guard couple whined and yelped under the auditory assault… until…

Dogamy: Essa?

Dogaressa: Can you hear me?

Both dogs eventually realized they had lost their sense of hearing from the noise the human they cornered made… and the human was no longer in sight… but they wouldn't give chase, their ears pained and rang… they needed medical help as their ears bled.

Jing had a smooth snowboard ride after me made a swift escape… where originally there would have been two more spike gates and puzzles, he only had smooth ground to cruise over… and it was enjoyable…

[J Ghost]: Don't you think that was a bit harsh?

[Jing]: They'll live…

[J Ghost]: True… but… brutal…

He passed by another sentry station beside a sparkle… a skinny minotaur monster was around and they greeted each other as he continued to snowboard with glide…

[J Ghost]: Ok, there should be a puzzle you can solve on the ice make the path appear… but there's a deviating path leading away from the place… you want to take a look?

[Jing]: Sure!

He turned to the right and found a gentle slope… so he could finally snowboard without using glide for propulsion… at least for now… he found a Snow sculpture that resembled Papyrus barring an overly muscular body… which wouldn't have been possible as well since Papyrus was a skeleton… he chuckled… then he realized the small pile next to it had "Sans" scrawled on it in orange…

[Jing]: Wow… I didn't even make those and I feel depressed.

[J Ghost]: Hm…

The snowboard handled just as well on ice though he was forced to get off and carry it on reaching a very long bridge… he dismounted as a dog pushed it's head out of a snow poff… and it's tail…

[J Ghost]: Well this is nice, seems just like a regular dog… oh wait, where we are… this means…

It stood up in an imposing set of armor that loomed over the child even more than Toriel did, while holding a spear.

[Jing]: I saw this coming, but this guy is big enough to grab me out of the air if I try to go for the bridge… we'll have to engage it somehow… I'm gonna fish for that stick.

He hurled the stick, which the dog bounded after on all fours to catch and brought back immediately…

Jing: Huh… we playing or fighting big fellow?

[J Ghost]: Maybe we could…

[Jing]: Yes… but…

Greater dog barked as he moved, sending a shockwave that threw snow up like a ridable snow ski had just blazed that path…

Jing: Whoa, easy boy…

The massive armored dog pressed down on him as it licked his face…

Jing: Damn, you're heavy…

He gave the dog a pet on the head… the dog seemed delighted and bounded around, Jing jumped and went into a glide… the greater dog raised it's spear which glowed blue… recalling the nature of magic here, Jing immediately forced himself to land… the dog kept the spear again… then leapt out of its armor and gave him a lick on the face… it was still a very large dog… but the size difference between it and the armor was jarring… Jing pet the dog again and threw the stick once more, which it chased…

[Jing]: I don't get it, that's a big dog, sure but how is it moving that much bigger heavier armor? I don't… I wanna research that…

[J Ghost]: Well, for now just let it be…

The out of armor greater dog returned the stick to the child's hands one last time and received another pet and tickle behind the ears… it barked happily one more time, which Jing dodged… though this didn't seemed to be a bark that carried a damaging soundwave… it leap head first back into it's armor and the armor walked off with the dog's tail sticking out of the collar.

[Jing]: Huh…

[J Ghost]: Maybe we should have tried that with the other canines first?

[Jing]: Well, it might just work, but hopefully we won't need the hindsight…

Jing decided not to pick up the snowboard again, which greater dog had snapped while bounding after the stick in it's full armor and began to cross the bridge. Papyrus and Sans waited on the other end.

Papyrus: This is it human! The ultimate challenge, when I activate this puzzle, flames will blaze, cannons will fire, spike balls will start swinging and… Sans! What's that dog doing there?

Sans: Uh…

Papyrus: Ok, we can't use this, there'll be no challenge and I don't want to hurt the dog either…

Jing: No no, turn it on! You finally got it right for once!

Papyrus: What? Human, are you serious?

Jing: Do it…

[Jing]: Bolt Caster, synth it.

[J Ghost]: Done.

Papyrus was stunned for a moment before he finally activated the switch on the puzzle… rather hesitantly… Sans still smiled at the sight, though his left eye flickered that teal and yellow… Jing jumped into a glide as he pulled out bolt caster and did the two slash motion which through the physics defying nature of the sword logic somehow gave him forward momentum as he cut through the flames and passed through despite getting lightly singed…

As the spike chain swung he landed on it deftly, balancing as it swung back and forth… then throwing a bolt caster storm at the cannon which just fired… destroying the cannon ball… Papyrus bit nervously on the fingertips of his gloves… the human was actually doing this! Sans simply enjoyed the show… though he was ready to provide assistance anytime to this rather reckless human… it was one of the promises he made to the old woman in the ruins that he dedicated himself to protecting humans in the underground… though he enforced providing her groceries to the old woman himself as an unspoken promise.

The kid leapt off the spike ball and under Jing's guidance floated across to the dog's rope, which was severed and the dog rescued under on arm, the other still holding a majestic magical electric sword longer than the child was tall… Jing landed gracefully… the dog scampered out of the kid's arms and ran up to Sans, who picked it up and pet in on the head, the dog gave Sans a lick in return… Jing wondered if the brothers tasted good to the dog.

Papyrus broke out into applause…

Papyrus: Wowie! You solved it human! I thought it would be too dangerous and hard for you, and that I'd save it for Undyne who loved it… but I think you did it even better than she could! I am simply amazed! You truly are a worthy first catch of the great Papyrus! Nyeheheheheheheheh!

Jing and Sans watched him run off in that silly manner because of what he had chosen to wear…

Sans: Well kid… thanks for a good time… whatever you are… if you keep going the way you are…

Harley sprang awake in the Vex space aglow with Crota's chalice of light… she threw herself to her feet immediately and started sprinting to Jing…

[Karina]: Harley wait! You're not well yet, your brain is still…

Jing watched as Harley desperately threw herself at him… tears streaming from her eyes and causing her smokey blue warpaint to run…

[Harley]: Please! I can feel him… I, I need a chance to…

Karina looked at Jing… they both felt doubt about this clearly, but he relented…

[Jing]: Don't do something we're gonna regret…

Sans: Hm?

Sans noticed a drastic change in the child's countenance… as the child threw herself onto him in a hug…

[H Ghost]: Wait fruity! Think carefully about what you want to say first!

Harley: I'm sorry! I didn't mean to kill! I didn't mean to kill you… or your brother! Or the goat lady! I…

[Jing]: Oh… shit!

[Karina]: I'm sorry Harley…

[K Ghost]: Her brain still isn't quite right… psychic damage from thorn… nerves going whacky… mini strokes and bleeding…

Karina dealt a sleeper hold while striping her of the chalice… knocking Harley back out… Jing took control of the child and stepped away from Sans… the skeleton's pupils faded away… his smile instantly went from friendly to horribly sinister implications.

Sans: Eh. Eh heh… Eh heh heh heh. Eh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.

[J Ghost]: This is bad right?

The sound of Sans teleporting occurred and the kid was now alone.

[Jing]: Worse.


	24. Choosing Sides

**Choosing Sides**

The kid's body was physically asleep in Snowdin inn… but Jing was hastily pouring over the footage from Harley's ghost while Karina tended to the again unconscious Harley… there was a tense atmosphere mounting as he watched the playback at an extremely speed with his helmet set for hyper sensory input to match and process the information…

{

Sans: Welp, I'm going to Grillby's.

Sans had a great fatal wound across his chest, bleeding… it was blood, symbolic or not, that didn't matter. Harley as the child dashed to catch him as he began to fall from his slow shambling gait.

Harley: I… I'm so sorry… I… really am…

Sans:… you are… but the other you… isn't.

Harley:…

Sans: But they wouldn't be… the skill in fighting is really yours… not theirs… you let them…

Harley:…

Sans: You, knew better… Too little, too late? G…go…to H..ell…

Sans smile seemed to become genuinely happy and sincere as the teal-yellow glow in his eye began to dim away…

Sans: Papyrus, do you want anything?

}

Jing took out from his robe the usual antientheogen and radiolarian control injections that were precautions for one wearing Vex derived armor and sighed… sitting next to Karina tending to Harley… she offered him her left hand which he took… and spent a moment to admire the simple, brutally imposing appearance of Maul'ual's Maulers which Karina proudly wore… and there was no risk of Vex infection from it, just a powerful piece of equipment that did its job well, punching stuff hard to the point where she used her right fist to hold back due to the sheer potency of the left gauntlet blade… much like the Cabal themselves, except for the holding back bit.

[Jing]: Damn it, I really should have watched the telemetry ahead… wouldn't have let her do that otherwise…

[Karina]: I shouldn't have tried to rush waking her up either… what will you do now?

[Jing]: I'm thinking… and wondering if things will play out differently now…

[Karina]: You should get some rest, keep up your strength…

[Jing]: You're right…

They huddled against a corner and removed their headwear, leaning against each other head on head… well, he took her shoulder, she rested her cheek on his hair. Jing gave himself the injections and dozed off shortly after Karina did.

The next day…

[J Ghost]: The time is…

[Jing]: Not important…

The child got out of the inn, Jing felt more robust than he had been despite the emotional hurricane form yesterday that he had spent brooding off and analyzing Harley's effects while comparing them to his own on the timeline and events here…

Innkeeper: Hey stranger, hope you had a good nights rest! Do visit my sister's shop next door!

Innkeeper's child: Bye!

Jing: Thank you.

The ideal rural hamlet full of friendly people… well monsters, but all the same, sentience was sentience to Jing… much better than the horror film setting Harley had turned it into when new of slaughter in the outskirts probably spread to the town and caused an evacuation…

[Jing]: Wish you were out here with me.

[J Ghost]: Uh… she's still asleep.

He had awoken faster than the rather large female titan and before starting off on this next phase, carried the comatose Harley over and left her head in Karina's lap… he'd want nothing more than to enjoy the town's peaceful atmosphere himself instead of through the child with his friends around him… It was so wonderful to be so far away physically and chronologically from his timeline… he certainly related better to the Last city than many guardians who wouldn't even try… technically still being a citizen who owned property… but it certainly felt strange outliving people due to his nature and sad to see his non-guardian friends, loved ones and family slowly leave the mortal plane.

Underneath San's smile… was a look he had seen on his own face many times… when confronting these realities… of having the rules of your existence change so drastically and feel it… for the most part he had conquered the issues, but even Oryx, a functionally deified being that lived since so long ago himself, had dreams of when she was a different gender and a simpler more temporary existence…

But he had Karina, good friends and the reasonable success of the "know your guardians" program to help him cope… Oryx… had…chosen to have his family… family… he knew Sans was using Papyrus to cope as well… what else did Sans have? Or hopefully… who?

The doorbell rang as he entered the Snowdin shop… the innkeeper's sister… a younger and far more dolled up anthromorphic rabbit greeted him cheerfully.

Shopkeeper: Hi! You must have been the one at my sister's inn last night.

Jing: Tch… nice business strategy though.

Shopkeeper: If it works, it ain't broke, and if it ain't broke, don't change or fix it.

Jing: I'm trying to fix something that was broke, I'm not sure if I am making it better or worse, while somebo… somethings… are just watching me and waiting for something they want, they'll swoop in and get it and they don't care if what I am trying to fix is broke… or not.

Shopkeeper: Sounds harsh… ya'll want something to feel better with? My cinnamon buns' sell better than that nice cream out there.

Jing: Hey, don't knock somebody working hard or trying his best… not cool.

Shopkeeper: Ok, you want cool, here's cool…

She pulled out a bandanna that looked rather manly. Jing felt a familiar resonance from it that told him it had once been a human possession.

Shopkeeper: How about that? Used to belong to a human who lived here a while before going on through… I think one of them skeleton brothers took his inspiration for that orange-red color scheme on whatever he's wearing off that kid, always orange and all…

Jing and the child's eyes narrowed… but he had a decently filled wallet…

Jing: I'll take it, how much?

Shopkeeper: 50, you want the kid's glove by the way? It'll be a 100… but since you were sleeping at my sister's, I'll give you both for 99.

Jing let a little solar light flicker around his eyes at the rather laughable discount, which happened in the child's eyes as well… the shopkeeper noticed this… and her face reflected she didn't quite like seeing that, her voice had lost its composure and rattled a little when she spoke again.

Shopkeeper: Uh… o-ok, how about-t… eight-85? A-and a free Cinnamon bun?

Jing: Deal, nice doing business with you.

He wondered if Papyrus was waiting for him at the path to the waterfall… but this wasn't a Papyrus that was unwilling to fight, or was his true nature still going to shine through at the end? He'd have to carry on anyway, so he took the Snowdin tunnel network and got ready to leave the town… There was a fog in the area that began to hinder visibility… at least he had the glove pair now…

He spotted a silhouette in front… but it wasn't tall enough to be Papyrus… he closed his eyes for a moment and sighed… how he hated butterfly effects… because he sensed the power of the strong.

[Jing]: Heavy Synth, Bolt Caster… I've got a series of unfortunate events Harley started.

[J Ghost]: It's the one in the hoodie isn't it.

Sans:…

Jing:…

Sans: Tell me. Why are you here again?

Jing:…

Sans: Alright, here's the better question that'll get me an answer no matter what.

Jing was seized telepathically and flung… he used the Arc forged guard to protect himself from the expected bone shower and sprinted into the gauntlet, hacking down bones before they could hit him, He culminated in a lightning storm from Bolt Caster that destroyed the bones… The Gaster Blasters… he slid away from the trees… cast a Bolt Caster storm at what would have fired the large beam … slided back to the center away from the tree hugging laser cannons which emerged from the snow… he glided upwards to avoid the twin beams from both sides… Sans shrugged before him in a taunting manner.

Sans: Wow… perfect… how much practice have you had?

Jing: You wouldn't believe me anyway.

Sans: The timeline has been funny… we see signs all over that something has happened… but I don't know what, like everything was gonna collapse or maybe it already did… but then somehow it's not happening or it hasn't yet… that's your fault, isn't it? What are you planning to do?!

Sans eyes vanished as Jing jumped over a wave of magical bones and slid underneath the laser duration of a Gaster Blaster discharge… San's eyes vanished…

Sans: Or should I be asking what did you do, what have you done?

Jing couldn't quite answer… sure, he was steering and directing the kid now, making decisions as well, but how would be explain Harley, and then Chara and thorn?

Sans: You know… I went to see the old lady this morning… give her the usual groceries and all… I'd leave them at a side and a froggit would pay me and bring it all in… then we'd stay at the door and swap jokes… I was relieved when she answered… but today all she could say was "thanks." I rarely hear people sound like that before… like she's sad… doesn't believe in herself or what she was doing anymore…

Jing destroyed a gaster blaster that had formed behind him… he felt Sans' telepathy crawling on him and triggered the Arc forged guard… it actually worked as a defense… But he was forced to jump as another Gaster Blaster was brought to bear… then found himself slammed onto the ground… He quickly threw himself back onto his feet and did a glide jump as bones sprouted from where he was… they remained there as his glide began to finish, forcing a lightning storm from him to clear them out…

[Jing]: There's 2 options, I show him I don't want to attack at all and maybe he'll see reason, or I tire him out at risk of killing him, then force him to listen…

[J Ghost]: Well don't slash or use light then…

[Jing] Tch… the effort spent to keep somebody alive instead of outright killing… switch scorch off as well, no accidents!

Sans: I really want to trust you, but the wiser part of me thinks you didn't have enough sick kicks killing us for fun. Did you come back here to ruin our lives instead of taking them?

[Jing]: Start arting up my solar grenades… let's start with Harley killing him, then his brother, then my introduction to the kid… and what happened on Mars… it'll be easier to show than talk.

[J Ghost]: Don't actually hit him… what about Flowey? We have his confession here…

[Jing]: I have a theory on why we shouldn't reveal that to him… remember, I'm in uncharted waters here.

[J Ghost]: Yes, boss.

He hurled the solar grenade that would play Harley killing him out… Sans evaded nonchalantly…

Sans: I'm not taking that from you…

Jing: Oh, you will…

Sans: Eh?

Sans watched as an orange tinted version of himself coughed once… red trickling out of his mouth… his smile was gone for a moment… as he looked down on the hoodie of himself in a different timeline where a red flower was blossoming from the slash wound… and they both grinned, again… Harley's Thorn dropped from her hands… clattering to the side of the dimension she was locked in… She beat her fists furiously on the walls of this accursed place… tears streamed down her face as she ripped the Mask of the third man off her head…

{

[Harley]: I can't take this anymore! Let me out! Let me out! Let me out! I… I… I… can't… don't want to do this anymore…

Sans:... ... ... so... guess that's it, huh?

His dying self slowly started to get to his feet, closing his eyes and clutching his chest and torso…

Sans:... just... don't say I didn't warn you. Welp. I'm going to Grillby's.

}

Sans watched as the point of view ran up to him and caught his fatally wounded self…

{

Harley: I… I'm so sorry… I… really am…

Sans:… you are… but the other you… isn't… But they wouldn't be… the skill in fighting is really yours… not theirs… you let them… You, knew better… Too little, too late? G…go…to H..ell…

}

Sans saw his other timeline self smile brighter as that sparkle in his eyes began to dim for good…

{

Sans: Papyrus, do you want anything?

In the childs arms the bleeding Sans turned to dust.

Harley: It… it wasn't me… it was… the third… 'man'.

}

Sans clenched his fists as Jing used the sword to ward of telepathy again…

Sans: Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now…

Jing: Because here you are… instead of this and that… a big improvement, I'll have to say… even for you.

Sans:…

He hurled another Solar grenade out, it missed, though they knew it would anyway.

Sans: That's never gonna hit…

Jing: The best way I be sure I don't connect is to make sure you get out of the way of it instead of teleporting into it if I throw it somewhere else.

{

Papyrus caught his head in his left hand as it fell off from his rapidly destabilizing body…

Papyrus: W-well, that's not what I expected…

Harley gasped in shock and stepped backwards… her hands remaining cupped over her mouth… there was a silent disbelief at what happened to all who were listening to Papyrus, who somehow still had his confident, assured smile on his face… as his body faded into Arc particles and were blown away in the snow storm… leaving his clothes and scarf next to his head.

Harley: I'm so sorry, I didn't… want to… but it's… all I… am good for… there's something dark in me… I'm losing to it…

Papyrus: But… st… still! I believe in you! You can do a little better. Even if you don't think so! I… I promise…

Papyrus head was scattered by the snowstorm as he finished his final words… even as he turned to dust he still smiled with that unfathomable belief of the goodness in all things living… The point of view fled…

}

Jing: This is what I'm trying to prevent…

Sans: heh…

He teleported in front of the child and offered his hand out… Jing took it, believing he had convinced Sans… he didn't expect a hard deck to the gut… blood issued from the kid's mouth and colored the snow red.

Sans: You think I buy a change of heart from you?

He received a kick in the forehead that sent him flying into a tree… Sans caught up immediately…

Sans: I don't know what form of existence you're in… but… how I want to deal with you now that you're in my face…

The skeleton's smile faded, tears slowly streamed down his eyes as both his pupils flickered teal and yellow… he hoisted the child against the tree with one arm, fury cracking his voice and he screamed as much as he shouted.

Sans: Is this a new way of playing with us after what you did to me?! Us?! Did you think of something new after being bored?! How many other timelines were there?! I remember so little from all of them, but they are all haunting things!

Jing struggled to speak despite the injuries and the blow to his head.

Jing: What… are you… saying…

Sans: The time anomaly, toying with everyone, it's you! Isn't it?! I should kill you now… but it's not gonna help is it? You'd just go back… and then we'll be back here again, doing things differently…

Jing: So much more in common than I thought…

Sans: Rrraaarrgh!

Sans hurled the kid into another tree… his breathing now heavy… in the shadow of the leaves only his eye was visible on his silhouette.

[Jing]: Ok, I think we can be more productive tiring this heavy sleeper out… I can't let him savage the kid like this… Oh and attach "Cold Cold Heart" to play on the remaining art grenades, will you?

[J Ghost]: And Harley's ghost thinks she has it bad.

He swung his sword at Sans who was forcing a smile but tearing up in his eyes at the same time… the Skeleton evaded… Jing hurled another electrical storm at a Gaster Blaster he predicted appearing behind… He threw one more at Sans… which was avoided… and parried a kick aimed for his head… then snarfing the Cinnamon Bun down since that food could mend the child's wounds…

Jing: It'll be much easier if we just talked…

Sans response was a telepathic tantrum which Jing didn't guard against in time, he and the kid were slammed to the ground, against trees repeatedly… then held suspended for the parade of Gaster Blasters… he sighed and prepared for the inevitable…

Sans:… please tell me at least you feel your sins crawling on your back.

Jing: You're about to break that promise of yours…

Sans:… the way things work with you… it's not staying broken anyway.

Jing didn't know how many Gaster Blasters fired upon him… but the kid's body and his failed just an instant before the beam barrage ended… Sans wiped away his tears and dropped to his knees, pondering what had just transpired… being this emotional over the anomaly now being so in his face… the fight had exhausted him and guilt simply multiplied the effect… as a red soul rose from the child but refused to shatter.

Sans:… sorry old lady. I wonder what little I'll remember from this timeline…

The child got back up, uninjured and wrapped in solar radiance. Snow melting away to show the usual ground beneath the kid's feet. For an instant Sans thought he saw an adult human advancing towards him instead of the kid.

Jing: Did you know the fatal hit scored on you was because you fell asleep in battle?

The human swiped at him with the sword… he could only manage a short teleport… and was necklifted by the child in one arm... Sans called for a bone barrage with the last of his strength… they burned away in the flames flaring from the child and did not connect…

Jing: I did not appreciate that… but now that I have your unconditional, undivided attention…

Jing started hurling solar grenades which played out the big battle that had occurred on Mars while accompanied by Nora Jones rendition of Cold Cold Heart… Sans watched as horribly wrong versions of humans and monsters he knew fought against bronze robots with red eyes on Mars… and the boss monster who sounded just like the old lady he made a promise to… his brother… Undyne… Mettaton from the TV… himself… the body of the kid holding him now… he calmed down while Jing sang over some of the lyrics with those of his own.

Jing: _Another crime before my time made your heart sad and blue, and so now you make me pay too, for things I didn't do…_ There… that's where I'm from…

Sans: Heh… this doesn't make it better… knowing you're not the only anomaly…

Jing: Still don't trust me?

The song reached the final lines as the grenades played out their last scenes of battle.

Jing: _Why can't I free your doubtful mind, and melt your cold cold heart…_

Something brought alarm to Sans face, shattering his smile as he and Jing turned heads to see the source of the new but familiar voice approaching.

Papyrus: Sans?! What's going on here?

[Jing]: Ah, a brick for a gem, perfect.

Sans: Papyrus! Get back! Get out of here… don't…

Jing switched to Stormcaller to cancel his radiance… he let Sans back onto the ground…

Jing: Well that's it, I guess Sans has defeated me by surviving my special attack… so… I'm yours to capture now.

Papyrus: Wowie! And I thought that note on my door from him was another prank… Sans… I thought you said you were going to…

Jing: Ahem, you're supposed to capture me? I'm not restrained…

Papyrus: Ah, right! Come here human!

Sans was still in disbelief and his exhaustion only compounded how much his surprise from these events stunned him as he watched his brother pick up the human and cart the kid away tucked under one arm… he slowly got back onto his feet and began to walk home… but his smile returned as he felt relief well in his chest… he shed a tear as he saw Papyrus leave their garage… and slumped into the couch of their home, falling asleep instantly… it was horrible that there was more than one prospect anomaly in play… but if this one was truly trustworthy enough to regard as a friend… he might just let himself feel hope again.


	25. Food for Thought

**Food For Thought**

A hungry man is an angry man

Elizabeth: Or in this case, skeleton…

Eleanor Lamb: Call me sexist but I like how it doesn't say anything about women…

It was nighttime when Sans awoke on the couch… he went to see the human, the anomaly in his garage… as he went in he noted that no escape attempt was made at all despite the door being unlocked, no proper restraints… and horrible conditions for food and bedding, though that was Papyrus being naïve and ignorant.

Sans: You really are serious about my trust and help…

Jing: Maybe even friendship…

Sans: Alright, let's talk… my brothers probably so excited he doesn't know what to do next…

Jing: Calling Undyne comes to mind.

Sans eyes went out, but this time out of concern instead.

Sans: Seriously? That's the end of the road for the kid you and your friends are guiding.

Jing: I have a plan… but first, I'm out of food and that is really not fit for human consumption…

Sans: Welp, let's go to Grillbys… then we can talk…

Jing: At least now you know why I can't risk telling you everything?

Sans: I wouldn't trust myself either… it was so tempting to just try and end it at you… then hope that would be all that was needed… but I'm glad I didn't break my promise… sides, if you can get up from being dead… that's actually much stronger than re-tries against anyone… which you also can do.

The duo entered the bar/diner hybrid… only greater dog and lesser dog were present… the bar greeted Sans enthusiastically… which he obliged in kind…instead of sitting at the counter however, Sans steered the child to a booth seating away from the bulk of the crowd.

Sans: You know, you got one of the dogs under scrutiny for nearly starting a forest fire, and the other two are hospitalized for ear damage…

Jing: Well, I didn't quite know what was the best way during those encounters, since all I had was footage of my friend showing how much she can do with just a plastic knife… which apparently was slaughter.

Sans: So there's 3 of you in there but only one of you can control the kid at a time?

Jing: Yeah… my friend got here first… we were sent here by an explosion… she was at the center of the blast, whereas we were dumped in after the kid decided to turn on her, where I am… she is out cold now.

Sans: Heh. That seems awfully convenient… even if I trust you, how can I be convinced she won't flip out again.

Jing: I'll make no guarantees, but you have my word I've done everything I could to eliminate a repeat performance, plus in that brief moment the first thing she did out of her coma was beg for your forgiveness for actions in the now overwritten timeline.

Sans closed his eyes as Grillby came over and left a bottle of ketchup on the table… Jing ordered fries and a burger… It was minutes before Sans spoke again.

Sans: On one hand I'd really like to thank you for making Papyrus' dreams come true… on the other, you know it probably isn't the best for him, right?

Jing: …but you'll go with him.

Sans: I have to… you might have sold me, but as you said… no guarantees.

Jing: You would understand why… too many variables I don't know or understand… I even have a hunch who's been mucking with the laws of your existence…

Sans' pupils went out and he gripped the table hard enough for that bit to crack and crumble a little.

Sans: Who, or what? Where can I…

Jing: I'm afraid you're just going to have to trust me to deal with it… Because unlike my friends, possibly this kid… or… it, yes it… you don't have chronological or ontological inertia to remember what you did when time shifts and resets.

Sans: I do have some… I became aware of the manipulations going on… how long I don't know… keep having dreams… of better or worse times, but I can't hold onto them… but others don't even have them…

Jing: I understand how you feel, believe me, in fact who's to say you feel good about this because I might fail or be at the mercy of something more powerful and adept at time manipulation.

Sans: Then let me give you a failsafe to skip the trust winning, if you need to sell yourself to another version of me in the future, say to me, "I am a stupid doodoo butt." Then explain what you've been doing to me.

Jing: You're worse than the old woman in the ruins asking me to talk to a dummy.

Sans: Ha ha ha, but doesn't it take one to know one?

Jing realized what Sans was doing.

Jing: So am I an old woman or a dummy?

Sans: You pick… because we have another bone to pick here…

Sans looked the child in the eyes and Jing realized in that pun was a warning.

Jing: Papyrus needs to turn me over, to Undyne…

Sans: Yes. I'd rather just let you go.

Jing: Don't worry, I can manage…

Sans closed his eyes for a moment…

Sans: Old people don't tend to be afraid of dying, and heroism has a special kind of stupid idealism attached to it… by your giving yourself over to her for Papyrus sake, it's hard to see you not being either.

Jing: A report that I got away just before she arrived won't work anyway… you'll just have to trust me that I'll be fine.

Sans: How do you intend to beat her though? Beat, not kill.

He knew what Sans meant, a killing blow tended to be far easier than incapacitating someone after making effort to keep them alive.

Jing: I'll figure something out… but if she is left in danger after I face her, can you intervene.

Sans: Welp. I would have even if you never asked.

Grillby brought the food over, which Sans paid for immediately…

Jing: Huh… thanks…

Sans: Well, one thing from you I could use then… Undyne has been passing off cooking spaghetti as Papyrus royal guard meeting or training, but her food is as lethal as she is in battle, care to set my brother straight? I know somebody who loves good food when I see one.

Jing: Then I get the couch tonight.

Sans smiled… one that Jing immediately knew was sincere, though all he could see was the transition from forced to genuine.

Sans: Oh… that's easy.

The portly skeleton took another swig from the bottle of ketchup… He loaned Jing an orange hoodie of his, which Jing gratefully accepted and pulled the hood over his head as Sans took him to the city for shopping… including groceries for Toriel and the skeleton brother's household.

Later at dinner time, the skeleton brother's home:

Papyrus: And so that's why my battle body is orange, I didn't know who that person in a bandanna or those gloves was, but he was so cool, and I took after him!

Jing nodded, remembering Sans request not to reveal Papyrus childhood idol was a human… they entered the home and went to the kitchen…

Papyrus: And this, is how Undyne taught me to cook!

Sans put his hands in his pockets and stepped back as Papyrus began his demonstration, which, as it went on, he took an occasional glance at the kid's face and had to start stifling his laughter… barely containing it as Papyrus finished the general cooking, and breaking for his room to howl with laughter and tears streaming down his eyes and the dish was presented to the kid and Jing took his first bite of it. Sans had barely finished his laughing fit when the minutes long silence coming from his home kitchen was finally broken in the way he expected.

Jing: What the hell is this supposed to be?! You feed this to people, they! Will! Die! You got the noodles texture wrong and waxy, the seafood we got is barely boiled on the surface and who the hell slams their tomatoes with their fists?! Did you even wash those gloved hands of yours?! They're orange! I can't freaking tell! All I taste here is onions and garlic! And why the hell do I taste Cinnamon?!

Sans so badly wanted to grab his trombone and provide fitting music but he was laughing so hard he clutched at his stomach… which hurt… he barely heard Papyrus' feeble answer before the child began screaming and shouting in a way one could never expect a child to do so.

Papyrus: Well Undyne…

Jing: Undyne Smundyne! We, are going to get you correct on doing this, and we, will start from 0. Forget anything you know that she has taught you about cooking!

Dinner was late for that night, but it was the greatest seafood Mariana pasta Sans ever had…


	26. Escape

**Escape**

Shaxx: The heart of willbreaker… today we begin turning it to the light…

Karina pulled out her hammer of Sol and began pounding away at the raw hadium flakes her beloved had scavenged… Jing noticed someone trying to enter the room where the ceremonial reforming was and made for the door…

Tex Machina representative: hello sirs, we at Tex Machina would like to speak to Shaxx and hopefully partake in helping you all reclaim Oryx's blade?

Jing: Where'd you learn this?

Tex Machina representative: we…

Jing: Put your big boss on the line…

Jing took the phone…

Jing: Have some dignity, it's the least you can demonstrate since **integrity** is absent in every damn level of your company! Piss off!

Shaxx started laughing as Jing returned and added a solar grenade to the metal being pounded… the door was locked again.

Shaxx: Ha ha ha…

Jing: Heh ha ha ha ha ha…

Jing & Shaxx: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Karina: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

The two guardians stopped and looked at the towering female titan who continue pounding away at the hadium.

Karina: What? I'm bigger then you both, I don't laugh like a haughty noble or a cute little princess type and there's room for a threesome at Tex Machina's expense.

They looked up at her and each other for a moment.

Karina, Jing and Shaxx: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Waffles. Sans hadn't had them in a good while, but he was enjoying the stack presented to him a lot, especially with ketchup, a request to which Jing had offered a raised eyebrow as a reply… before Sans did it himself.

Sans: Who's the 3rd stack for?

Papyrus: Undyne! Nyeheheh!

San's eyes flashed and the 3rd serving as well as its contents rattled for a bit…

Sans: Wait? What? Already? Kid… this means…

Jing: Yeap, I know…

Papyrus: She'll be nice to you, you did cook her breakfast!

Jing: Heh, were it so easy…

Sans poked at his food a bit more.

Sans: Bad… to the bone.

Jing: Very bad indeed.

Sans: I meant the bacon, there's ribs and soft bone in it.

Jing: Your brother insisted on doing just that with Undyne's methods.

Jing pulled out the toy knife and briefly let the Arc edge's blade flourish.

Jing: My blade can cut through armor, and still cut a tomato.

Sans: Heh. Put that thing away, we're still eating.

Papyrus brought milk he poured from the freezer, 3 glasses of it, grinning all the way.

Papyrus: Strong teeth and bones.

Jing and Sans shared a brief instant of eye contact and chuckled…

Papyrus: What?

Jing: Strong bones… you guys are skeletons… forget it, I'm making it less funny… oh? Speaking of strong bones… I sense the power of the strong… and not from you this time, hoodie.

Jing went to investigate the physics and joke book pile when there was a knock, Sans grabbed him and teleported them both upstairs… as the door cracked… Papyrus went to get it… the door had split down the middle in a simple lightning shape, and when Papyrus opened it he pulled the half with the handle out of the frame instead…

Sans: Should have been left ajar…

Jing: When is a door not a door?

Sans: Heh, good one kid. But in this case there's one more answer, when Undyne pounds on it enough… listen, I'll help you out as best I can from here, but are you… really, really gonna turn yourself over to Undyne? I might as well break my promise to the old woman now and leave you dead where you stand.

Papyrus showed Undyne to the breakfast table…

Jing: I said I'm helping your brother's royal guard ambition. I have no intention of seeing if Asgore savors my soul.

Sans closed his eyes and sighed as Undyne started eating with gusto and asking where the human was.

Sans: That's a relief… so, what now?

Jing: We wait for her to finish eating first.

Sans: Oh?

Jing: Because… it'll be funnier that way.

10 minutes later…

Undyne: Papyrus, that was amazing, who taught you to cook that well…

Papyrus: Oh, I didn't do most of it, it was my new friend, the captured human, who I'll be turning over to you shortly!

Undyne's face was one of horror and shock when she turned around to see Sans and the child, whom Papyrus was gesturing at…. Jing waved, the kind where you waggled your fingers.

Undyne: Papyrus! What if it was poisoned?! Oh Asgore… it was so good too… I… no no, think big mean nasty thoughts, it sent Dogamy and Dogaressa to the hospital!

Jing: Your food wasn't poisoned… anyway, I'm ready to go.

Papyrus: Didn't the veterinarian just magic away their ear damage?

Undyne grimaced, that was true…

Undyne: No restraints… and you made friends with the human too…

Jing: That, is why I let him catch me… Bye Papyrus…

Papyrus: Bye human! Thanks for the cooking lessons and surrendering to the great Papyrus! I'll credit you in my honor and royal guard acceptance speech! Nyeheheheheheheh!

Jing: Later… Sans.

Sans: Heh…

Undyne had Jing handcuffed in chains as Jing walked towards the waterfall passage ahead of her… she finally spoke up.

Undyne: Did you start the fire near Doggo's station as well? Maybe I shouldn't have fired him…

Jing ignored her question and answered with his own.

Jing: Papyrus gets in the royal guard for this, am I right?

Undyne:… That's of no concern to you.

Jing: Really now, he caught me because I liked him enough…

Undyne: Exactly… and if a human who isn't half as nice as you comes along, there won't be anything left of him by the time it's over.

Jing: So you teach him to cook the worst pasta in the world to hope he will do something else with his life?

Undyne: Yes… wait, what? I do not teach him to cook horrible pasta!

Jing: Ah. Ah ha. Ah ha ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Undyne slammed her spear into the rocky ground they were walking on, causing a spiderweb of cracks from the impact.

Undyne: Look, he's probably getting in now no matter what, I can't discredit him for this and I won't… I'll just have to be extra careful and look out for him, maybe post him where humans don't tend to be sighted over our history or…

They just entered the waterfall…

Jing: Good… very good.

Undyne: You're being very suspicious, what's your agenda in all this?

Jing: Since you just told me it's been fulfilled, I'm moving on to my original goal, going home. Bye!

Undyne: What?! Ugh!

Jing activated Strom Trance, using land fall to shatter the chains on the kid's hands and then doing an ionic blink out of the remaining hand restraints… Undyne had shielded herself with her spear and when she recovered from that blinding flash the child was nearly out of her field of vision, swimming with several after images, coursing with lightning, making good headway…

Undyne: Damn it, damn it damn it damnit!

Undyne sprinted up, running past the box and the note next to it written by a box hater, her vision still filled with after images of the child escaping… Jing kicked the mushrooms in the room where he had hidden to stop them glowing… he remained in a corner out of direct view of the water, like he had so many times before on Pantheon while taking a sneaky snipe on a guardian… Undyne's loud armored footsteps and war cries soon faded into the distance.

[J Ghost]: Nice one boss.

[Jing]: Curious… there's somebody else in here with us.

[J Ghost]: Eh?! You can't possibly…

Jing caused one of the mushroom clusters to light back up… there was a dusty old tutu in the room with him all along… but he made over to pick it up…

[J Ghost]: It's just one of the old ballet skirt thingies.

He put it on the child's body after using several warlock melee strikes to beat the dust out of it.

[J Ghost]: Really?!

[Jing]: Real men wear pink…

[J Ghost]: Your most used shader is God of War, which is completely red… and no, I'm not debating if pink is a type of red.

[Jing]: It's just that… this is less a tutu than an artifact like everything else from the surface I have been collecting… and from this one… I sense the power of the strong.

Outside he could hear the familiar voice of monster kid along with the pitter patter of little sprinting feet.

Monster kid: Undyne! Undyne! Who're you after? Let me help! Undyne!


	27. Breakout

**Breakout**

 _Master Rahool: Guardian! I don't suppose you speak pre-golden age German? No? No one does…_

 _Jing: Ich bin Rache. Ich bin die Nacht! Ich bin Fleudermausman!_

 _Master Rahool:… That's perfect! Warlock, we have the highest respect for your order… now if you could…_

 _Jing: Go decode Cayde's sack of doorknobs first._

Unlike Harley's first pass through the place, the plants that had served as transportation across water were not pre-deployed for him as he continued on… though he didn't care for solving them, choosing to do extended glide jumps over the water surfaces. A PA system he knew nothing of suddenly sounded off at this point.

Alphys: Um… Hi… er… everyone. Usually Mettaton or Undyne do this, but right now the royal guard is going into patrol in waterfall… yeah… please report any human sightings to them and er… stay away from it if you see it… apparently it… um… doesn't hurt anyone who won't try to uh… fight it… yeah… oh I'm just the royal scientist… by the way… eh… could gotten someone else to do this… oh no, did I still leave it on?!

[J Ghost]: This Alphys is a new figure who only got mentioned when Harley was passing through, she never even met her.

[Jing]: Interesting, but we're going to have to be careful now, aren't we… least we still have San's hoodie to hide the kid's head… pass ourselves off as something else…

[J Ghost]: The tutu should really go from the look.

[Jing]: Right.

He took it off and stored it away.

[Jing]: Remember, compile all the history plaques we see along the way, Harley may not have cared… but the info could be useful to us.

The room full of echo flowers was now full of lingering chatter from the plants… though those didn't matter to him, a royal guard was peering into the telescope present… not noticing him… Jing snuck up behind the figure who had removed his helmet and grateful for how the child's body caused glide to be silent, struck him in the head with the hilt of the toy knife, knocking the royal guard out.

The rock wall's secret door was already open… Jing knew what awaited on the other side… but this time, things would be different… he stopped to read and store the data on the history plaques first… and took a breath before reaching the swampy area… royal guards were positioned on the bridge.

Undyne: The human's here! Catch it!

Jing engaged the first royal guard as the rest began to make their way over… he noted instead of throwing mass magical spears, Undyne was now opting for a single, more precise throw… he angled his positioning to keep a royal guard between the child and Undyne's view of the child. He threw a hard blow at the guard's knee, forcing him to kneel and with the sword hilt and the kid's knee, landed a double blow on the head, knocking the guard out despite his helmet… then activating the Arc forged guard on the arc edge to deflect Undyne's spear as well as stunning the second guardsman who attempted to grab the child from behind.

He kept the guard on and attacked with the sword, changing it from a lethal weapon to a long baseball bat in function… gaining immunity to Undyne's spears in the process…

Undyne: Ugh, you want me to get over there?! Ok…

He finished the guard who was reeling from a series of blows all over his body with a warlock melee to the head… as he heard a splash into the water signaling Undyne starting to swim across…

[Jing]: Of course! She's a mermaid…

He jumped and did a long glide over the three remaining royal guards and hurled a storm grenade at his own feet then followed up with landfall from storm trance, destroying the plank road… and electrocuting Undyne in the swampy water, though only enough to knock her out…

Royal guard: Captain! Quick! Get her out of the water!

Undyne felt her helmet come off, and blinked dazedly… watching the human child flee across the destroyed part of the plank road with rapid bursts of ionic blink before she blacked out again.

Jing took cover in the sea grass and crept slowly, there were voices from inside this patch with him… he pulled the hoodie over his head and calmed the child's breathing…

Mettaton: So, where did Ms. Undyne go?

Monster Kid: She went onto the bridge with several guards! Oh wow, this is gonna be so cool…

Mettaton: Thanks kid, we now continue our pursuit of the human crisis, stay tuned for more coverage!

He recognized Mettaton, who had a rather random bird nest hat thingy atop his head for camouflage, he started to move through…

Mettaton: Oh perfect! Darling you just came from the bridge, did you see anything exciting over there?

Jing: Turn that thing off, I'll sue you if I see myself on MTT later.

Mettaton: Oh… how sassy… alright then, let's go onto the bridge kiddo.

Monster kid: Yay! Undyne! Undyne!

There was a crystalized slice of cheese on a table next to an echo flower… he interfaced with the sparkle for a moment and felt his super rebuild…

[Jing]: Nice… so this does more than heal… like orbs of light.

He noticed a grey door on his way to the next area but didn't bother with it because the next moment he looked at it, it was gone… he heard two voices from the next area that always made him chuckle.

Papyrus: Ow ow ow ow! Sans! Your telescope hurt my eye!

Sans: I didn't tell you to look through it. Maybe now you've seen the point in that?

Papyrus: Sans! I've got a black eye! This is not the time for puns!

Jing: Badum'tsh.

Sans: Heya…

Jing: What're you guys doing here?

Sans: Papyrus is supposed to meet the king to be formally inducted to the royal guard… I just came here to check on some chrono readings, via this baby.

He patted the telescope looking device… Jing instantly knew it wasn't a telescope though, having seen similar equipment around the tower.

Sans: It's been collecting data for me that I've neglected… for years even… until you convinced me that… maybe not all anomalies are… malicious or bored.

Papyrus: What are you guys talking about?

Sans: That this telescope does more than… having an eye out for me.

Papyrus: Sans! Nevermind! I'm moving onwards! I can't be late for my royal guard induction! Good luck human! I'll let them know you're coming and mean no harm! Nyeheheheheheheh!

Jing's metaphorical jaw hit the floor… Sans closed his eyes in understanding as Papyrus did that silly sprint into the distance.

Jing: He's harmless, you said.

Sans: Well, it's still literally correct… I'll be here catching up, apparently there was an anomaly, a big one just before you got here, I need to… oh, and if good food does for you what it does for me, the nice cream guy set up in the hole behind me. Chin up, I know you got this.

Nice cream did make one feel better, Jing went into the cave, where the salesman was and happily bought some… he was even happy with the punch card system he found pointless… until he realized the historical plaque had been painted over with flavors…

Jing: Look buddy, I honestly really like you, and I really want to. But you've been choosing bad places to sell ice cream, and right now, you've shown you have no damned respect for your own people's history by doing something like this.

Nice Cream Guy: I… I…

He found himself eating one as his second customer left him alone in the cave again… before he slowly began to remove the paint and ink he had placed over the plaque… he had thought everybody would have read it or stopped caring by now.

Sans: Harsh, I could tell you what was originally written there if you wanted.

Jing: Forget it, tell me where to go from here.

Sans: Take a right up front…

As Jing turned towards the marshy area, the PA sounded again…

Alphys: Um… Attention! According to Papyrus and er… the patrol at the first plank road, the er… human will be in the marsh zone now, any moment… er… please be alert and have a good day… oh man, why did Mettaton have to ask me to do this instead of somebody else? That lazy burger bar guy could… Oh no! I left it on again!

He sighed and went back to Sans.

Jing: Give me some bones, the pelvic ones if you could… and a spare rib.

He started carving in front of Sans the moment he got what he requested…

Sans: Hm… a boomerang… or, in this case bonemerang? Ha! Bonerang! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Jing: Bonerang, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

[Karina]: Babycakes, that's so crude! Ha ha.

With the new weapon ready he wiped one last tear form his eyes and went to the marsh where several royal guards were now on high alert and present… the rib he hollowed out into a snorkel of sorts.

He threw a storm grenade into the distance, causing splashes on the water which the guards went to investigate… and took the chance to enter the marshy water, which was oddly clear to his eyes when it had been dark as could be when seen earlier… the surface almost behaving like a one-way mirror.

Royal guard: What was that?

Royal Guard 2: I don't know, call it in Gerry.

Gerry: Alright Packie… Francis, Derek, me and Gerry saw something, possibly lightning magic… the human may be here with us, be alert.

The PA crackled to life with a brief burst of static…

Alphys: Hi… I'll be uh… watching you all… and helping your blind s-spots out with my camera feed… yeah.

[Jing]: I feel something again… that patch of sea grass…

[J Ghost]: It'll probably make good cover too.

As the kid ducked and crouched within it, he spotted ballet shoes… but there was a resonance between them and the old ballet tutu, more so than the other artifacts from kids he had collected prior… he glanced at Karina for a moment who smiled back lovingly.

[Jing]: Hm… I wonder…

[J Ghost]: Your hunch is probably right boss, but we should be focused on the job at hand.

A Royal Guard crept near the patch of sea grass and noticed the wet foot prints… Jing lunged with the sword immediately, using a guarded variant of the blade form the toy knife to knock him off his feet, then pounding him on the head hard… he then jet up to the cave ceiling, finding a rocky outcrop to perch… The PA crackled back to life again with Alphys nervous voice.

Alphys: Um… I can't see everything, but you all heard that… right?

The guards swarmed over…

Francis: Derek! Shit…

Packie: Oh quiet Frankie, we all know you're freaking out because there's one less person to watch your back, not because he's our brother…

Gerry: He stayed in one place too long, keep moving…

Gerry peered into the seagrass…

Gerry: Stay away from these patches if you're alone! Huh… the usual shoes in here are gone… where are they?

His brothers in blood and arms had moved away in a back to back formation… Gerry himself tried to keep within the line of sight of the other guards at all times… he got back up from the grass patch… Jing landed on his back with the force of gravity and dealt a knockout blow despite the child not weighing very much…

Derek: Gerald! Shit Packie… we took our eyes of him for a moment… its you and me now brother…

Alphys: Guys! I saw something enter the water, and…

She saw the human child for a moment, dripping wet and bearing a sword from a plastic hilt… she flinched as the blade was swung as if it would get her… the video feed went dark… she was panicking now…

Alphys: Um… I lost my video guys… watch out for a … really cool… big sword, I have to say…

Packie: What?!

Derek: That's it Packie, we're screwed… I love you brother…

Packie: It ain't killing us… but… could come from anywhere, keep your eyes open…

Packie stepped on a dry twig.

Derek: Ahhh!

He fired his shotgun a few times into nothingness…

Derek: Stupid twig… scared the crap out of me… Packie?

Packie laid on the ground unconscious… the human stood atop him playfully playing catch with a boomerang that looked like carved bone… the hood hid the human's eyes, but the smile he could see would haunt Derek's dreams from this day forward. He freaked out.

Derek: Get away from me, get away~ urk!

The boney boomerang knocked him squared in the head… in his dazed state he felt a weight land on his chest… and the last thing he saw of this brawl was a sword hilt and kid's knee going for his face… he would wake up in his home much later.

Flowey watched the child leave the area and shuddered… it was far, far easier to kill. But to incapacitate an opponent and leave them alive… that took so much more effort… and love… a special kind that respected life. What was this human?

Jing took a breather as a sunlock, using a solar grenade and standing near it to dry out the clothes and avoid risking a cold… as well as pulling some marshy detritus out from the attire… the hoodie was borrowed from Sans after all.

There was a long stone corridor along a waterway in the next room, though this water was clear… the guards were visible along the corridor… but they weren't looking… he slipped back into the corner and pondered his move…

?: Hi.

Jing spun around and prepared to fight… but he saw a gratuitously smiley face, which contrasted with the hushed whisper being put out, and the long white tentacles.

Onion-San: I'm Onion-san… sorry, I tried talking to the guards and they yelled at me… in my own home, I'm sad.

Jing: I'm scared of them too, but I need to get past them.

Onion-San: I can help you… but you need to hold your breath… they don't care about me, keep saying they are looking for a human…

Jing: Thanks.

Onion-san's smile lessened in gratuitousness but became sincerer. Jing held onto one of the tentacles reaching for the child.

Onion-San: You're welcome.

Onion-San took the child underwater and swam the length of the room… on the other side Aaron was flexing for the guards. Which distracted them…

Royal Guard 1: Man, we could use somebody like you, why don't you join up?

Royal Guard 2: Yeah! Yeah, we'd love having you in our unit!

[J Ghost]: I suppose you'll have to dry off again…

[Jing]: That's not so bad…

[J Ghost]: Did you ever consider this bugger carrying the kid with tentacles might also use this body of water as his toilet?

[Jing]: Crap… hey wait a minute…

[Karina]: Monster food and drinks don't cause poop somehow.

[Jing]: Exactly.

[J Ghost]: Oh good, that's a relief.

Onion-San perched himself on the rock in such a way that the child was blocked from the guard's view as Jing headed onto the next room.

Royal Guard: Hey! What're you doing there? Why aren't you in the sea or aquarium?!

Royal Guard 2: Yeah! Get those slimey tentacles off the walk! We might slip on them during Royal Guard business!

[J Ghost]: Harsh.

[Jing]: That's the smile of a depressed person in an existential crisis we saw earlier.

Citizens held up by the royal guard incursion were grumbling in the next room… He recognized Sans leaning on the wall… and a mermaid of sorts, different from Undyne huddled in a corner… and more textbook fairytale creature shaped…

Sans: So, what was it like in the other timeline?

Jing: Everybody here was dead or moved somewhere else… because my friend… and… something else put the laughter in slaughter.

Sans smiled but shut his eyes at that.

Sans: I like puns kid, but it looks like that sense of humor of yours is blacker than an ink well in a coal mine…

Jing: If I could tell you more about my job I would, I chart and map death itself as a moonlight.

Sans: I brought you a fresh hoodie, since you look like you'd need a change of clothes… Papyrus insisted on the purple dye stripes when I was picking it earlier, heh… would have been just a blue one I never wore before otherwise.

Jing: It'll do, thanks…

He switched from the orange hoodie into the blue and purple striped one… well, crudely dyed purple stripes, Papyrus was about as good at this as he was cooking (before Jing intervened) clearly.

[Jing]: Put K.D. Lang's Surrender into a grenade.

[J Ghost]: Eh?

[Jing]: Jeanie, the kid still needs to dry off again…

[J Ghost]: Isn't that song a bit conspicuous?

[Jing]: Sans'll appreciate the humor.

Jing spread the arms and legs of the kid before the solar grenade to use the heat to clear his clothing.

Your life is a story… I've already written… The news is that I… am in control…

Shyren looked up at the grenade singing in KD Lang's voice… Sans winked at Jing, he got the subtle joke immediately from the opening lyrics. Shyren started to lipsync.

Jing: Ms… the whole song won't last through the fireball, or rather the fireball won't last long enough for the song to play…

I, have the power… to make you surrender… not only body… but… your soul~

Sans: It's alright… if you'll excuse me…

Sans teleported away and was back in nearly three blinks of an eye… with a pen and a toilet roll… The grenade failed at this point… but the voice, identical to perfection continued to come out from Shyren's mouth…

Shyren: Tomorrow never dies! Surrender! Tomorrow we will rise! On time~ I'll tease and tantalize~ with every line… till you are mine~

Jing: I'll be… how did you… know this all along?

He noted Sans starting to collect gold from the crowd watching her sing while handing out "concert tickets" made from the toilet paper… Sans threw him a wink that suggested there was a cut of it for him as well, Jing smiled…

[Jing]: Well, prep another song'd up art grenade.

[J Ghost]: What'll be in it?

[Jing]: Go ask Karina… I'm watching something pretty damned beautiful here…

Shyren: Tomorrow Never dies!

Jing walked up to a piano in the distance and started to play the melody of the song while Sans whipped out him trombone and joined in, following Jing's lead on the piano pretty well and accurately…

An hour later… Shyren was signing autographs, while Sans gave her half the gold, and split the remainder between himself and Jing.

Sans: I might set up a hot dog stand later down the path, keep the good work up kid…

Jing: But I didn't quite do the best job possible with people…

Sans: I don't sense LOVE or EXP on you…

Jing: Are those acronyms? Give me what they stand for.

Sans: Execution Points, and Level of Violent Expression or Violence. Accrued in droves by killing… makes a person powerful at the expense of an increasingly dark soul…

Jing: Heh… Mastering that so called darkness is an important art… existence isn't that simple.

Sans: Welp, given that you did some damage to the dating dogs that magic can't totally fix, I somewhat agree… but you aren't completely sans mercy, quite the opposite in fact.

The skeleton closed his eyes at this point.

Jing: And you say my sense of humor is black?

Jing knew what Sans implied… it was a pun to remind him of the timeline where Sans and Harley dueled to the death… the impromptu concert ended with Mettaton talking to Shyren while he noted monster kid sprinting in the opposite direction of the large crowd that watched their performance after the hold up by royal guards in Onion-San's area finally finished…

As the crowd vacated, he noticed a note hanging over the piano and read it up…

[Jing]: Interesting… Jeanie, keep a scan of this, I'm investigating.

[J Ghost]: Done boss…

He went down the corridor where it rained from water dripping above… there was a music box in the statue he couldn't hear over the raindrops… but a conveniently placed stash of umbrellas further down helped with that, he grabbed one and ran back to the statue, finding somewhere to slot it… he could just hear the music box within now…

[Jing]: Make an audio of that.

[J Ghost]: Huh… done…

The first 4 notes of the melody caused a secret door in the cave wall to open… he stepped in and found a red orb sitting on a pedestal… that's when he noticed a small white dog next to him barking. He pet it on the head, remembering the dog from Papyrus puzzle and licking Sans in the face.

Jing: I should probably leave something like that there, never know what'll happen if I grab it…

He watched the dog run up to the orb and absorb it before somehow ghosting through the walls and out of sight…

[J Ghost]: Shouldn't you have…

[Jing]: Meh, I don't care, didn't stop Harley from turning this place into a morgue or us from stopping the blight taken kid… I'd say Thorn was more powerful…

He went back to the rainy area and grabbed an umbrella for himself since it seemed to get heavier onwards… Monster kid was apparently there getting soaked…

Monster Kid: Yo! You got an umbrella? Mind if I tag along?

Jing gestured approval and sheltered Monster Kid, they then continued onwards… he couldn't stop gushing about Undyne.

Monster Kid: Undyne is so cool! She always beats up the bad guys… ha ha… I feel bad for whoever she's after now, the whole royal guard is with her…

They walked several more paces, monster kid being the only one who spoke all the way… this was familiar to Jing enough… Harley had done the exact same thing, though rather than listening, she had been indifferent to all the fan adulation…

Monster Kid: Or maybe I shouldn't feel bad… they must have been really nasty if she's asking for their help against someone…

Several more turns and bends passed… in the distant background was a castle sticking out from the city… Monster kid paused and still spoke with overflowing awe.

Monster Kid: Yo, aren't you gonna stop and enjoy the view? That right there is King Asgore's castle! Isn't it awesome?

Jing stopped for a moment to soak in the view… He put the child's arm around monster kid.

Jing: Yes… I suppose, yes it is.

Eventually they reached the rocky outcrop where Harley left Monster Kid for a moment…

Monster Kid: Hey, I got an idea, put the umbrella away and climb up my back…

Jing closed the umbrella and tossed it, then knocked it onto the outcrop with a warlock melee…

Jing: Alright, now for your plan.

When Jing finished climbing up, he grabbed the umbrella…

Jing: Here, bite the handle or use your legs, I know you have no arms so…

Monster Kid: Yo that's a swell idea of yours, I'll bite it…

It took some effort but soon they were both on the plank road… Undyne busted out through the wooden flooring…

[Jing]: Heh, knew she wouldn't do that floor poke trick with the kid here…

[H Ghost]: That is brilliant…

[K Ghost]: But doesn't this also make monster kid a hostage?

[Jing]: I'm not restraining him…

Monster Kid: Undyne!

Undyne: Get over here kid, that human is dangerous!

Her voice was fierce but one could hear and feel the concern in it.

Monster Kid: Human? What? Oh… Yo… I'm… sorry man…

Jing: Don't be.

He turned radiance on…. And looked at Undyne, smiling…

Jing: The fire comes for you!

Undyne deftly moved to evade his first solar grenade… though he hadn't thrown it at her at all but rather over her… he didn't want to hit monster kid after all.

Undyne: Ha! You'll have to do better than that!

Jing: I am…

Monster kid panicked as she held him.

Monster Kid: Undyne! That ball! It's fire… we're on a wooden plank road… it's spreading…

The face of battle fury Undyne had melted into worried anger… Jing formed another grenade casually lobbed it to a section that wasn't ablaze, Undyne responded by way of magically spearing the solar grenade, making it explode in the air…

Undyne: Damn it! Stop that right now!

Jing: You can do that by not attacking me…

The child's hand glowed brighter than the flaming angel wings… Jing was threatening to drop one right onto the bridge.

Undyne: Grrrrr… this isn't over!

She picked up monster kid with one arm and sprinted away… Jing cast one more solar grenade between them to make sure her way back would be burned up… he smiled at her fleeing form.

Jing: Of course…

Monster Kid: Sorry pal! This must be some mistake, you don't seem bad to me!

He slowly walked towards the section Undyne had previously sliced open to cause Harley to plummet and leapt off to flee the inferno he started down to the garbage dump. Glide made for a landing that did not need buttercups to cushion… but he had to duck from a royal guard shotgun and crossbow arrows.

[J Ghost]: Undyne must have tipped them off!

[Jing]: Of course she did, Heavy Snyth, Bolt Caster.

He threw several repeated lightning storms into the foul smelling water, electrocuting all the guards who had their feet in it…

[Jing]: See? Easy…

[J Ghost]: Smells like fired stale fish after blending in with the stench of trash.

[Jing]: It does indeed…

They smelled a little burnt and smoke poured from their armor, but they were still breathing… he even stopped to turn one who landed face first in the water around so that he wouldn't drown… he rounded the corner with the Arc forged guard enabled… but the guards here had been zapped unconscious too… he picked up one of their shotguns with a sling and wore it over the kid's shoulder… the barrel dragged against the ground due to its length, so he sliced most of it off with bolt caster, electing for a sawn-off shotgun instead. The dummy opened one eye at him but felt the heart of will breaker from bolt caster and immediately pretended to be an inanimate object again.

[J Ghost]: Aren't you gonna test that out?

[Jing]: Yeah alright, put my Burden of Proof XI on…

He chambered the weapon and fired… so did the monster shotgun in the kids hands… void full auto rounds… just like his current piece… though the kid's body struggled to handle the recoil properly…

[J Ghost]: Looks like full auto's a burden here…

[Jing]: Oh well…

[J Ghost]: Did you pay attention to what you have been shooting?

This was Undyne's house, which Harley didn't bother to explore and thus Jing didn't know… although it's windows had both been shot out and it now looked horrified rather than fierce… Jing checked the mailbox and realized whose it was with a slight tinge of horror… he spun around when a familiar voice came from the exit.

Napstablook: Oooo…. Ooo…. I thought I heard gunfire… ooo…

Jing hastily slung the shotgun behind the child's back. He was relieved.

Jing: Oh, Hi Blooky… sent the snails to Toriel yet?

Napstablook: Thanks for the reminder… ooo… by the way my house if over the other side… if you want to hang out… though I think you wouldn't… ooo…

[Jing]: Could use a place to lie low actually…

[Karina]: Yeah why not, take him up on it…

Jing: Actually I would… lead the way…

Napstablook: Oooo? Ok…

The moment he had the chance to "park" the kid though, Jing removed his helmet and opened his robes, checking on his case of syringes containing anti-enthogens…he wondered if there would be enough to last him through this saga as Karina saddled up near him and put her arm around his shoulder… he leaned his head onto where he knew her cheek was… he didn't get to see her face as he jabbed himself with the anti-vex precautionary drugs… she had come to dislike seeing him wear the Theosyion Vibrissae since that particular strike they went on and that incident… she hated how he needed to take these drugs due to the Vex cells and processing units in the armor… and while their relationship had remained stable, he was a lot less happy since it had become mandatory for him to keep them equipped, it hampered his true fighting prowess as he favored glove warlock exotics… and probably there was some joy nullifying side effects from the medication… this was why she herself didn't enjoy or try to adapt any of the Vault of Glass armor for herself, they mandated similar dosages.

She held him close, refusing to sleep since Harley was still comatose… trying to make sense of how events both past and current would transpire, influence each other and possibly conclude… she looked at her left arm which was outfitted with the bladed shield of Valus Maul'ual… at least this was simple to use and understand… Cabal were rather human like in technology and ability if one gave it enough thought… no magic or otherworldly aspects and tricks, just solid dogged strategy and technology… Jing actually had enjoyed studying and researching them the most… yet right now here he was, hand twisted and forced into a Vex mystery across the epochs and eras… How she wanted to pull those cursed tendrils and plates off her lover's hands and crush them, ground them into powder, step on and smash the remains… but for all their sakes, she couldn't.


	28. The Gates of Hell

**The Gates of Hell**

 _Elizabeth: The road to hell is paved with good intentions._

 _Eleanor Lamb: Just so you all know, this chapter heralds a change in the way dialogue is presented..._

Jing pitied the kid… he had Karina to cuddle against when sleeping in the vex realm. The child had Napstablook's haunted house, which offered a very hard wooden floor to lie on, with San's loaned hoodie folded up to use as a pillow… the kid was apparently dreaming of flying through very deep space, seeing galaxies and star clusters… Napstablook got up as the child did. He put his arm around the ghost to act as thanks… but only got Napstablook's chair backrest instead, he was sure it meant all the same to the incorporeal entity, "Thanks for everything Blooky… it was very nice of you to let me spend a night here… but now I must go. Chin up ok? Try to cheer up more."

Napstablook nodded and returned to his computer… Jing realized he shouldn't have fired on Undyne's property now, especially since he hadn't initially known whose it was… the path leading there was now cordoned off to investigate for evidence… he could here a very frustrated Undyne screaming her head off and raving from that direction… thanking his fortune that no royal guards were in the area, he made off towards the path that would lead past Gerson's shop, electing to pay the aged turtle monster a visit, who perked up on seeing a customer,"Whoa there! I've got some neat junk for sale…"

They made eye contact… and for an instant there was silence… The elderly turtle started laughing, "Gwahahahahaha, I know the look of one wise beyond their years… you're an old soul, aren't you? But I know that kind of look, if I were to try to attack you I'd be in some hot water, eh?" Jing wondered how his demeanor simply flowed out of the kid like that, " But you won't… and I really don't want to kill or hurt anyone if I can help it." Gerson narrowed his eyes, "Good… good… now let me hazard a guess… if you don't do archeology you at least like history?"Jing relaxed a bit, "Among some other things, but that topic can be saved for another time…" Gerson laughed again, "Gwahahahahaha such sass lass… or are you a lad? I can't tell, you humans are confusing in childhood." "Wait, you know I'm a human and you're not turning me over to the authorities?" Jing enquired…

Gerson paced around the human child stroking his beard, "You aren't the first here… and probably not going to be the last either…" He pulled out a tattered notebook of yellowing pages and some old glasses where they had clouded up in a way that could probably never be cleaned off… "Fancy that, kid… if you like them I'll offer you both for gold." Jing regarded the artifacts before him, "That still doesn't explain why you don't want to turn me over…" Gerson's face betrayed a hint of annoyance at something in the past, "Asgore and me once agreed it'd actually be pointless to leave the underground because we'd just be killed all over again… It's a right betrayal of his to change his mind that day… but then, young'uns are young'uns… most of them who fell down here were pretty harmless… well… most… that notebook there had two owners… it's torn because it was used by studious boy, when it reached the hands of it's second owner, who used it as her dairy… she ripped most of his pages off! Gwahahahahaha… the glasses are still his though."Jing started contemplating information he had received from Toriel earlier, "Interesting… the girl was also the biggest human child you had ever seen, wasn't she?"

In the vex dimension Karina had taken her chance to sleep, her ghost though, heard Jing and raised his eyebrow. "Gwahahahahaha, you've done some detective work haven't you? Yes, she was… when I first saw her and she initially bought this notebook from me in this here shop… I thought I was talking to an adult human warrior! Of course then I realized her shoes and that big poufy skirt were for human dance arts after getting to know her…" Gerson's faced saddened a little. Jing began to pry the notebook turned diary, "Mind if I read it?" Gerson snatched the book back, "I won't, as long as you buy it first! Gwahahaha, I'll have you know if you say yes this will be the second time I'm selling this thing… hopefully I don't get it back again, because that'd mean… Asgore got your soul now, eh?"

Jing handed Gerson some gold, he didn't mind, he had a good reserve after the concert he staged with Sans and Shyren… Gerson counted the coins, "Nice chatting with you kid… by the way, be careful when you head outside and onwards… Undyne came in to refill her frost dust, and asked about you… also says there's quite a force to block your way and nab you apparently…" Jing kept the diary, "I'm not too worried about… wait. What's frost dust?" Gerson placed a can on the counter, "Ah… here, have a canister of it, for free! You might need it where you're heading if you get there."

Jing took the can and examined it… Gerson continued to explain, "Most of the Royal Guard is of the same species of monster as Undyne, physically strong naturally, great swimmers as well, but they're part fish… so when they patrol places like Hotland, they have to apply that to control temperature or they risk drying out in the heat… or in extreme cases… becoming crispy enough to serve alongside chips… I used to apply it myself when I was mining gems in the lower levels of waterfall…"

Gerson stroked his beard for a moment as he paused, "Dangnabbit Fluffybuns, you're real bad at naming things." Jing noticed a black rune in the stone wall and was intrigued by it. "What's that emblem mean by the way?" "Gwahahahaha, you ain't got anymore chat time for that kid! You've got Undyne at her home which I assume you shot up and the royal guard to go through in front of you, now hold your sass and get going before you get all rocked and hard placed!" Gerson noticed the sawn-off shotgun on the child's back as Jing was about to exit his abode and called out… "Hey kid… I don't smell any EXP or LOVE on you… so… I'd personally appreciate it if you don't go the way that tall girl did after she returned the notebook to me… because I see that boomstick on your back… and you know under that armor you're pointing it on sons, fathers, husbands, wives, daughters… mothers…" "Heh…" His ghost buzzed around him with Karina's as they left the shop. "Don't go the way of that tall girl… are you speculating that…" Karina's ghost finished the sentence, "That my guardian is from one of these children?" Jing looked at his lover's ghost, "You could tell us…" The male voiced ghost sheepishly bobbed, "I never saw the actual corpse I was interfacing with… I just did my thing when I found a light compatible set of human remains… and she punched her way out of the ground."

He gave Gerson a smile before leaving… the aged tortoise monster wasn't sure if it was meant to be reassuring or if it was a hint of the futility of trying to avoid people being hurt in situations of inevitable violence… either way that human knew how to care for itself from what he understood… Gerson just hoped he wouldn't see a dust covered corpse of a human child carried past his shop entrance again… or worse… read the entries of a dead child he had befriended barely a while ago form that notebook once again… he hated having that thing to remind him of the dead human children who passed through and met their fates… he had been an old soldier warring with humans once, but children were still children.

Woshua splattered soap water which evaporated instantly as it spoke, "Dirty. Dirty dirty dirty dirty!"Jing began to reach for his weapons, "What?" Woshua invaded his personal space sniffing, "Smelly…" Jing gave the hoodie a whiff… being dunked in water and rapidly dried of twice and falling into the garbage dump then treading through it had done his attire no favors… "You're right…" Woshua piped up enthusiastically, "clean away, remove germs?" "How?" Woshua grinned ear to ear, "Green magic…" Jing watched as blue and green waves began to be emitted from the bath tub turtle creature… and glided to avoid the blue waves and let the green connect…. Woshua waved and went on it's way shortly after… he felt like he had taken a good bath… and the clothes no longer reeked, smelling of mint and lemon fresh wash… "Hmm…" His ghost spoke up again, "Boss?" He gave Jeanie instructions "Keep stock of this…" "Roger that." He addressed Karina's ghost as well, "Get the telemetry, show Karina when she wakes up." Her ghost bobbed to nod.

He spotted Aaron reading something about paranormal investigations under the next waterfall, and was happy to be ignored… An obnoxiously loud cheerful voice sounded off, "Hoi!" Jing recovered from slight shock, "Hey." He looked at the cat dog hybrid creature before him, it was adorable but quakingly weird in the face, "A human! Must pet!" "What?!"

Seeing temmie's leg stretch like a tentacle and curl unnaturally while chasing him was more than enough to freak him out, and instinctively he didn't want to be touched by it. He unholstered the shotgun. "Back off!" Temmie freaked out and sweated bullets in fear, "EEEEEEeeee! Guns… not… cute!" It fled… Jing breathed a sigh of relief and the terrain seemed to change a little, but a Royal Guard was in his way, though thankfully he was facing away from the child… Jing did a kick and warlock melee between his legs… he slumped to the ground from the fetal position in pain… whimpering… a knock to the head ended it. "Nasty." His ghost commented. He shrugged his choice of groin attack off, "Perk of being tyke tall. Besides, he ain't dead." Jeanie processed his visual memory feed, "Why're they guarding the mushrooms?" "Obviously it's the way out of here somehow, I remember these lighting up or shutting off on touch, let's go."

The PA crackled to life again… The nervous wreck of a voice he now knew as Alphys spoke up , "Ahem, Alphys here again guys, one of your er buddies has… fallen asleep on duty in the room? Well, hopefully it's just sleep, heh heh… please check on him!" The royal guard he had been sneaking up on turned around as the PA went silent… there was a split second of silence as they regarded each other. "It's here! The hum~ mmmmm…ph!" His suddenly silenced yell of course, attracted the attention of the others… Terry as evidenced by his name tag yelled while sprinting over, "Over here! We got to check on Clay and Jim!" Angus sprinted to the way onto the city, "I'll cover the exit…" Johnny the last one made his way to the side of Terry, "You do that Angus…" The two paired up back to back, cross bow and shotgun at the ready… making their way towards where Jing had entered the room from… "How's it looking John boy?" Johnny spoke while keeping back to back with Terry, "Clay and Jim are out, they aren't dead cause they'd be dust, but otherwise… oh man… the mushroom here's lit…" There was a swooping swooshing noise… "Johnny what was that? Hey john boy, you mind slowing down a bit? I can't feel your back against mine…" Terry looked up… Johnny was suspended from a stalactite on the ceiling upside down, suspended by a rope around his ankle. "Johnny what the hell are you doing up there?!" Johnny flailed as much as he screamed or shouted, shaking the rope, "The human! Quick! Cut me down… I… I'm…" Johnny blacked out… Terry freaked out as Johnny's helmet slipped off his head and bounced on the ground once near him… near a silhouette… which planted it's foot on the helmet to stop the bouncing… "Get away from me! Stay away!" Angus could only see what was the silhouette of Terry's helmet go down… as the rest of the mushrooms fully illuminated the room… he started to run for the other room where more of the Royal Guard was… several echoing booms spilled throughout the room.

Angus fell… his legs paining severely… he tried to crawl forwards as one more hard knock via shotgun butt to his head ended the fight here. The vex realm's silence was broken by Jing's ghost, "He may never walk again with what you just did…" "Couldn't risk him escaping… he won't die though… hm… seems there's another exit here that Harley never found before… let's check it out…" His ghost nodded as he continued.

Jing followed the path for a moment… it was the Temmie village… and they seemed ignorant that a big fight had just concluded at their door step… there was a sparkle present… he interfaced with it… though he felt a little sillier for coming in here… he went into the shop, detemmined to leave after making a purchase or window shopping. The shopkeeper of course, was a temmie, "Hoi!" Jing regarded one of the items she had one sale, "College… you want a donation?" He put the gold the temmie needed on the table… The Temmie shopkeeper's eyes popped out of her head in awe, "That's a lot of muns… wow… ok, tem go colleg and make you prouds!" "Did she forget her face?" Jing replied to his ghost, "I'm more amazed how she graduated and is now back in the time we're saying this." The temmie Shopkeeper's face slipped back onto the faceless void her head had apparently been at college, "Tem learn lots of new tings! Tem show y"ou, da temmie armor! It's good yas?" Jing decided to have fun imitating her speech pattern, "Yaya…"

This actually looked functional and had even had technology ahead of it's time built in, bio foam injectors and ballistic protection… it might even be usable in his era if he could keep it… well, usable for a child anyway. "But its too guds… maybe battles become too ez if you takes this… maybe if u dies more Tem lower price?" Jing didn't care, he was still loaded as hell from the concert and matched the price tag with gold on the counter… to make his point however… he held his breath until the child turned blue and died from asphyxiation… Tem watched in shock and mild horror before he resurrected himself… "Ok, tem lower price, dun do dat agains…" His ghost was slightly alarmed at his choice. "You do realize the poor kid will remember that right?!" "I do… but then Harley's been worse with the child's body already anyway, nevermind being possessed and soul stolen earlier." He thought about that, did the kid remember or did only Harley?

He wore the temmie armor underneath the hoodie and continued onwards, noting that Woshua had somehow caused Papyrus' shoddy dyework to be fixed into proper neat purple stripes instead… the feelings of joyful silly randomness left him as he exited the Temmie village and continued on the path he knew Harley had taken… he wondered if he could linger there longer… it had been a long time since he operated without the Theosyion Vibrissae… though he was glad the time he was using it would soon end for good… he actually liked the Temmie village atmosphere… he felt like he wasn't on antienthogens for a moment.

The royal guards he had konked out were evacuated by this point… which mean the next room was ready for him and expecting the child any moment… it was totally dark as well… apart from a little pinkish-red light of the glowing crystals… unlike the last room however… he didn't need to light up the road to progress. "Shock and Awe." That was a cue to his ghost to activate the stormcaller suite of powers, she had to remind him though, remembering Harley on arc blade, " Don't fry them into arc particles…" "Don't worry… I know how to turn the voltage down… and get a longer storm from it… electrostatic mind, transcendence and ionic blink, no landfall… don't want accidents." She complied. A royal guard yelled out hearing the footsteps, "What's that noise? Hammer! Reaver! Sparrow! Garth! Hit the crystals, we need light now!" Four voices that were presumably Hammer, Reaver, Sparrow, Garth, "Yes Theresa!"

The room lit up, Jing counted at least 4 dozen royal guards present… all bearing spears, axes, some crossbows and crates containing probably submachine guns and shotguns. Theresa warned, "It's over human, surrender… your main advantage, sneaking around in the dark is gone…" A wisp of Arc energy flitted out of Jing's eyes and the child's at the same time… one or two guards visibly reacted to it in fear, some gripped their weapons tighter… Jing confidently smirked, "I have a better suggestion, you all go home now, and leave me be… go spend this day with your families and loved ones… none of you here need to be hurt… or heaven forbid my hand slips and I actually score a fatal blow."

An arrogant, haughty insufferable voice spoke out, Jing noticed the guard's name tag was Reaver, "Well, I like those chances, that means you're not fighting at your best, arrogant of you, but an edge we'd take… however noble you think that makes you…"Hammer chimmed in, "And while it is regrettable… there's only one of you, and so many of us, so many monsters who with your soul, will return to the light of the sun… our hopes ride higher than ever, now that you are here, the last one."

Arc energy leaked from the child's eyes again, "I cannot let you all perform genocide on my people." "There was a child who the king, through us Royal guard, offered a chance to live the rest of her life in luxury here in the underground… then she would turn her soul over willingly when her life expired… she refused and we had to kill her… her shoes and ridiculous skirt are still lying around waterfall, though you have wounded some of our brothers in arms, we offer you this amnesty for now… it would be wise for you to take it.." Garth cautioned…

Jeanie shook her head in the Vex space, "Oh boy, he shouldn't have said that… things will only go one way now." Harley's ghost raised an eyebrow, "What did he or they say? Whos out there?" Karina's ghost shushed her, "Shh… we'll get the chance to find out."

Theresa tapped her foot, "Your soul is ours either way, isn't that right? You must know…" Jing felt himself growing irritated and exasperated, "I am trying to solve a riddle across time and space that I cannot let you all stop me from finishing, there may yet be a happy ending for your people if I am allowed to settle this… if you kill me now, know you deny yourselves possibly that and are at the risk of otherworldly forces you all could possibly never comprehend, forever… They can manipulate your lives and you would never even know."

One royal guard set his weapon on the ground and stepped forwards… he removed his helmet and his hair was greying from brown with a beard and moustache… he pulled out an aged piece of parchment. "I am sir Walter… and child… with your soul, our king, Asgore… will have the power to stave off any evil that threatens us, seven souls would make a monster a god… you should relax your shoulders and accept this contract, which only needs to be amended to your name, luxury every day of your life until you die, is that not desirable? You have the look of one who has seen too many winters for your age… let your burdens go… cast them upon our king, as we did."

A Royal Guard yelled, "Are we just going to talk? Lets just use our numbers, mob the human and win…" There were some chants of agreement… and nods… "Shut up Page!" Walter roared. Sparrow said something though, "Shouldn't we consult captain Undyne?" Page snorted, "She's busy at her house which was shot up with buckshot, though she could be along any moment if we called."

Walter leaned closer and pulled out a pen… gesturing to the old tattered sheet with Asgore's seal stamped upon it. "For your sake, please… not all of us have borne the burden of ending young life…" The child stepped back a bit from Walter as the room's crystals began to dull their glow, some guards reactivated them, keeping the room decently lit. Jing fought the urge to draw his weapons, "This is the last time I am repeating my offer. Leave now, or I will send you back to your loved ones cripples, paraplegics, disfigured and amputees." Reaver spat, "What arrogance! Charge the human!"

The room roared and the fight began… "This is a trap… but it's not for whom you think… You've all chosen to be locked in here with me… and forced me to trigger it."

The three forward most guards yelled and trembled as the ground they trod onto was splashed by a pulse grenade… falling silent from it… the rest waited while two brought shotguns and crossbows to bear, which were shot out of their arms by Jing immeditaley… though the sawn-off aspect of the gun combined with Burden of Proof XI's nature also caused them some injuries by the void rounds… Jing vaulted onto a guard amongst the crowd with glide and slammed his helmet repeatedly while electrocuting one who attempted to pry the child off with a charged Thunderstrike… he noticed the greater dog among the yelling mob of guards and abandoned his attempts to knock out the royal guard the child had been piggybacking, leaping onto the large armored canine instead… "Hey big fellow, remember me?"

The greater dog barked in loud approval as some guards froze in surprise while others covered their ears… a few put together what was happening… "Good. Mush!"

A few dozen guards were bowled over unconscious as the greater dog charged, unable to tell between a fight or play… Sparrow saw the room begin to dim and kicked the crystal next to himself… but nobody else around had the spare time or capacity to bother with it in the chaos of the battle, and their… to his horror, rather rapidly diminishing numbers… some guards were too injured to continue, others were trying to flee with their comrades who had buckshot and/or stab and/or slash wounds from the sword the child was wielding, which seemed too long for the child to manage… although the reality around him sang of the contrary.

He didn't even see how the greater dog went down, although it's unconsciousness seemed far less painful than other instances around him that were inflicted by the sound of bones cracking and pained screaming… Lightning suddenly came down from the roof of the cave, seemingly out of nowhere… as their numbers were now halved and still dwindling… He could still hear the human's voice, distorted, " Power!"

He saw lightning begin to strike and arc around, spreading from the child in webs of dangerous energy from the glowing, crackling form of the levitating child's stretched out hands… several more royal guard fainted from the electrical barrage… "Unlimited…! Power!"

The rooms crystals began to grow dark again, but the lightning whipping around was still more than enough to make it clear how badly the royal guards were losing this fight, spear thrusts and blade slashes, arrows and gun fire all missed the child… and then the lightning stopped… and the room was far quieter and now completely dark… Sparrow couldn't tell how many guards were left… he couldn't find the crystal he had used for light anymore either… only the sound of panicked, nervous breathing and anxious shouts surrounded him…

A set of crystals glowed brighter for a moment and he aimed his gun at the sight, but couldn't tell who or what he was pointing his shotgun at… Page screamed… There was a loud thump… he heard Reaver whimpering as a shotgun there went off… "You would have shot your comrade in the face if I hadn't pushed that barrel down you numbskull!"

A loud crack that sounded like a skull impacting the cave floor followed… Sparrow aimed his shotgun at the crystal and fired… the crystal was destroyed by his pellets, and for a moment he saw the child holding that sword spewing some kind of energy defense that deflected his shotgun pellets away… there was a brief moment where the next nearest crystal was obscured from view for a moment and he fired there… he saw the child for an instant as the crystal gave a final glow before blowing up from his attacking it… His gun clicked dry… he gingerly reached for more shells as the child appeared before him, electrical energy drifting in wisps from human eyes, sword illuminating both their faces… it was swung and dealt him a blow to the head… he felt several rapidly fired punches and kicks that seemed to penetrate his armor before his head was struck in a way that echoed throughout the now otherwise silent dark cave… he would wake up on a hospital bed… his only relief now was that his enemy wasn't killing, but that brought a terrible fear with it… could Captain Undyne or King Asgore handle somebody who could prevail against such odds without taking a life if they decided to drop that simple choice of code?

Jing went into the next room… he saw the grass shake and knew somebody was inside… "Whoever is there, come out… I have no intention to kill, but heaven help you if you try to kill me." It was Monster Kid, "Y… y…. yo…" "Oh, it's you… go home… oh wait, you want to see Undyne eh? I'm sure she'll be along soon. Stick around…" Monster Kid trembled slightly, "I… I have to ask… something really stupid… I know you won't hurt me… and Undyne said you hurt a lot of people but they tried to hurt you first, right?" "Smart kid. Yes…" Monster Kid calmed down ever so slightly at that, "I want to follow you… for a bit pal…" Jing couldn't conceal his surprise at how naïve that sounded, "That, is stupid… I did set fire to a bridge you were standing on." "I… know you aren't bad deep down… you can't be… otherwise things would be way worse… somehow, I… I believe… I know… that you knew because Undyne was there… she wouldn't let me get hurt when you did it." The monster kid was composing himself…

Jeanie wondered aloud in the vex space, "Ripple effect memory proofing?" He replied to her, "Would that the effect were more pronounced… this little… the chance of it making anybody besides Sans useful is somewhere between laughably pathetic to nonexistent." He simultaneously answered monster kid through the child, "Clever… but… I still suspect you just want to follow and watch me fight Undyne, don't you…" "Well… actually, yes… I mean I'd like to see that… but I rather you both don't fight at all anymore… nobody gets hurt if they don't fight you, right?" The monster kid gave him a nervous smile. "Why… you don't think Undyne can beat me up like the other bad guys?"

They went through the field of Echo flowers… "I don't want people who aren't bad to get hurt, and I can tell, you're somebody who doesn't like hurting other people… I… I… if Undyne… fights you… even if she wins… nobody really wins…"Jing closed his eye's and the child's, "You've done some growing up…"Monster Kid pleaded, "Please don't fight Undyne… I'll try to stall her while you run…"Tongues clicked in both Jing's mouth and the child's "Tch, don't you want to see the surface?" "If Undyne kills you and takes your soul… she won't be my hero anymore…" Jing realized the monster kid really was maturing if he could produce such a thought…

They were now across the bridge where Harley had her fateful battle with an Undyne that had somehow been resurrected with light into something resembling a guardian… but Jing recognized that metallic set of foot falls and a glowing yellow eye peeking out from a helmet echoing from down the corridor he had just traversed… "I'll stall her, just go and run… aaaahhhhhhh!" Monster kid had missed his footing…

Jing and Undyne regarded each other cautiously as they watched monster kid gingerly cling onto the rocky pillar between the bridges… each letting their eyes flit to monster kid for instants… "Oh man… oh man… I should have thought this through… help! Please… oh no, I'm falling! Ahhhhh…!"

The child's body sprinted while Jing relayed instructions, "I need a movement edge, Voidlock." Jing's ghost Jeanie replied, "Got it, boss."

Jing and Undyne both leapt after the plummeting monster kid… both streamlining themselves to fall faster… but like he had opted… Jing used blink to close the gap quicker… he caught monster kid in one arm… and used the other, the toy knife pushed out Bolt Caster's blade… and he did his best to stab it into a cliff wall, as Undyne did her spear on the opposite surface to slow their descent… on his side was a wooden ledge that he began to aim for… which seemed to have stairs going up and down… the ledge being used to be a connecting to these two stairs in the cliff… he let go of the toy knife to land on it and set monster kid down… "You alright?" "Yo..Yes…" Jing pointed at the stairs he presumed would lead up, "Get out of here…" monster kid stuttered a reply, "But I…" Undyne chipped in sternly, "Yes kid, please… go."

Monster kid hesitantly looked back at Jing and Undyne… before beginning to move up the stairs that led back up to Waterfall… Undyne kicked off the wall and landed on the wooden ledge… which creaked dangerously… "Well human, your weapon is stuck up there… and you clearly have some nobility and honor to you… surrender to me, and I'll see to it that Asgore gives you the amnesty he offered that human when I wasn't even born yet."

Jing drew the shotgun with blinding speed and fired, but Undyne parried every pellet effortlessly… She looked furious… "Don't test my patience! That won't work on me!"

She stepped forward towards Jing, but the platform gave up on that clank from her metallic boots and crumbled, sending the human child and Undyne into freefall again… Jing gingerly hurled a Vortex grenade back up at where the aged ledge had been… pulling the toy knife free from it's lodging as it was no longer suspended there by the blade of bolt caster… He cushioned his landing with a quick switch from blink to glide… snarfing food to compensate for the slight pain he felt from the child's body… It was exceptionally hot down here and he found himself sweating profusely… he pulled out the frost dust canister he had gotten from Gerson and cracked it open, pouring the contents all over the child… that brought relief from the heat… Undyne was nowhere in sight… he spotted the toy knife stubbed into the ground and reached for it… pausing when a cyan glow appeared around it, but in the next instant immediately reaching for it and then swinging upwards with Bolt Caster through it to parry Undyne's descending magical spear.

"Blast it!" He spotted her through the sound of her voice… and retaliated with a lightning storm from Bolt Caster's blade… but he knew that was probably futile… while it had some tracking properties, Undyne certainly would be more than capable of evading it… that was the correct assessment… Undyne responded with a barrage of magical spears that he activated the Arc forged guard to deflect… they bounced off and into the cave walls… both parties stopped when they noticed the rumbling around them build… and then the ground around the human child's feet cracked apart… as lava poured from the cave walls… he was adrift on the lava flow… Undyne following him from the lava river's bank… if it weren't for the frost dust he knew he and Undyne would have been burned alive by the sheer atmosphere heat already… in her case she'd be cooked alive in her armor…

Another spear was hurled over… he deflected it with the blade guard again, but found himself staggering precariously close to the edge of his rocky raft from the impact… her current magical spears were more kinetic than energy based… he could tell… stepping back to the rock's centre, he leapt and the next spear was thrown, gliding and landing on a larger rock drifting on the magma… He flung a Vortex grenade… Undyne evaded… but the gravity singularity of it pulled… and her armor's frost dust was drained away by it…

"Ah! Ah! Ah! Arrgghhh!" She quickly threw another capsule of it over her armor herself… Jing knew that brief moment when the dust was not on her armor must have burnt her… he didn't attack her when she was reeling though… she might have miss-stepped and tumbled into the lava, there would be no hope then. "You had wounded so many of the royal guard… you sent those 2 sweet dogs to long term ear treatment… crippled and maimed so many of them… you love playing with things then burning them don't you? I should bring Doggo back on the force… I closed an eye… so to speak… when he smoked… then I yelled at him before firing him when I thought he failed to extinguish those doggy treats he smoked… that fire… you started it… as if that wasn't enough, you had to go vandalize my house?!" Jing stifled a chuckle that he hoped Undyne didn't see because some part of him still found it funny despite their current situation, "That was really an accident… but this isn't… we can stop fighting…"

"You are strong… and you have some valour and sense of right or wrong, I will give you that… but I fight to avenge an evil done unto my kind by yours so long ago. I will not be stopped, not by you or any other humans up there! I will deliver your soul to Asgore!" On that declaration Undyne began to throw a barrage of magical spears, Jing moved off his current rocky perch as the blue glows indicated where they would impact… Undyne wasn't stopping… he changed footholds… and watched the spear barrage strike the rock drifting on the lava until it crumbled… he looked for another one and glided for it as his current one met the same fate… He saw Undyne lift up a rock and heave it… he jumped and glided again…

Jeanie relayed the fight from what she could see through Jing's eyes, "She's blowing up all the footholds!" Harley's ghost wanted the telemetry since words weren't enough for a fight description, she was so curious… "What kind of…" Jeanie replied, "We're fighting on a lava flow." Harley's ghost recoiled in surprise, "Holy Crapping f-" Karina's ghost cut her off, "Should I get Karina?" The child and Jing both spoke. "I got this."

He stood now on the smallest rock drifting atop the lava… Undyne heaved another boulder, which he peppered repeatedly with the shotgun as it flew over, shattering before it could collide… he noted that this particular foothold was rapidly melting into the molten rock river and leapt onto what would have to be the final stand he had to make. "It ends now Human… I only ask that you face this blow with dignity, because I respect you as a worthy opponent… sacrifice yourself and your soul and let me claim your body with it when this spear impales you…"

Jing began to back away to the edge of the rock… Undyne panicked visibly, "No! if you fall in there we can't get it! Just die already! Get over here!"

She threw a special spear attack…. No, not threw, there was a very long handle still held by her hands that continued to extend as she threw the thrusting stab… he had a few footsteps of sprinting towards the spear… and slid under the length of it… then grabbed the handle and pulled the child's body onto it… drawing bolt caster again, he charged, sprinting along the top of the magical spear's rod… then jumped, throwing a Vortex grenade at Undyne again, before gliding over the river of molten rock towards Undyne… "No no no no! It's hot, it's hot arrrggghh! She cast another canister of frost dust on herself again…"

Jing was on the same stretch of rock as her now… there were bridges above… meaning this was near where Alphys' lab was… Undyne launched a barrage of swings and stabs with renewed vigour and fury… but her body wasn't matching up to what she wanted to do… the child easily blocked most of her blows and evaded them… she didn't care that the rumbling under their feet was building up again… Jing spotted a rope ladder being thrown down from above… good, he wouldn't need to stab the walls with his blade to climb out… "Stop this now! We are both in serious trouble!"

"Yeah… you are…" Several lava geysers erupted from the flow of magma… Jing immediately put up the Arc forged guard of bolt caster… but Undyne instead chose to attack… her spear glanced off… and left her wide open to some droplets of lava… which easily nullified the frost dust where they connected and ate through her armor… it, to Jing's horror, smelled rather like barbecued fish… "UUwwwwwaaarrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Damn it, mind your surroundings!"

She stopped flailing and passed out… Jing pulled out her last canister of frost dust and emptied its contents into her armor… then cut her charred armor off, tying her to the ladder with her belt and pulled on it… the ladder began to slowly move upwards… as he clung onto it with the unconscious, horribly burned Undyne suspended on it…

Sans tugged hard and yelled, "Pull!" Tsunderplane ignited her engines harder, "It's not like I wanted to help you with this! I just had nothing better to do!" Mettaton's wheel rolled backwards slowly, "Harder my darlings!" Monster Kid's teeth sunk into the rope behind Mettaton, "I don't care if my teeth pop out doing this! Undyne and my human friend are…" Royal Guard 1's efforts broke off his chest armor, "Put your back into it number 2!" Royal Guard 2 tried not to get distracted, "We must…. Save! Captain… Undyne!"

"Ugh!" The group fell over and sat down in relief as Undyne and Jing finally cleared the cliff into Sans' sentry station…Tsunderplane plane flew in one loop, releasing the ladder… which knitted itself back into Pyrope slowly… Jing cradled Undyne's burned form, "Can you help her?"

Sans glanced across her body a few times rapidly, " I'll have to take her to the hospital, now… it smells very bad, and that's not an intended joke."

There was that door clicking noise and Sans was gone… with Undyne… the royal guards 1 and 2 slowly reached for their weapons, Jing reactivated Bolt Caster in response and roared at them. "I just beat, more than 50 of you goons, and outlasted your captain without really trying to attack her, do you really want to do this now?!"

Monster kid ran and stood between them both… " Please! No more fighting… please… nothing good came out of it when Undyne forced him to… please…" "But it's our duty to…" Royal Guard 1 was cut off when he felt Royal guard 2 stroke his chest and abs, "Number 1… let's not… we couldn't beat the captain together… somebody who can fight this well without killing… I don't want to see what happens when their hand gets twisted into… doing it…" Royal Guard 1 relented and lowered his weapon, "Ok, let's just get ice cream… and then get to the hospital and check on all our guys… and the captain…"

Mettaton, Pyrope and Tsunderplane also left… monster kid and Jing finally made eye contact after a few minutes of awkward silence… he took a cup of water from the cooler across the bridge and offered monster kid a sip… which was taken up… "Yo…I don't really know what to feel or think now anymore… I thought Undyne was cool… but… she did that to herself just as much by forcing you to fight right? You didn't do anything that caused her to get hurt… right?" The child looked away from monster kid, "It's a life or death struggle, I wanted us both to get out alive… I'm just glad Sans was around to help…" "I don't know what to think or say anymore… I'm going back to my parents… I kinda blame you for what happened though… even if you didn't really want to hurt her…" Jing looked at monster kid and nodded, "You're not wrong to… later…"

"Later, pal…" Sans came back at this point as monster kid left… "She's stabilizing… but… it's… not pretty." Jing swigged from another cup of water, " I didn't mean for it to become like this…" Sans patted the child's back before speaking, "I know… you meant well, wanted to help Papyrus… guess you really aren't trying to play with our lives… you just can't see how things go despite being here once eh? It's sad isn't it? Doing worse when you want to make things better but causing more damage because you can't see it coming until you've done it…" Sans stopped, he wanted to console, not overanalyze or overthink.

Jing looked away… "Well, maybe I'm not playing maliciously, I'm really trying to find the best way to do things… struggling with everybody's problems and greater scope threats and issues…"

Sans put his hand on the child's shoulder… trying for a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I know you are, would have just continued napping in my sentry station otherwise, heh… promise me you won't give up on that best then… I don't think you'll succeed, but I want to be proven wrong somehow… deep down… after getting to understand you…"

Sans teleported away… Jing noticed Karina stirring from her sleep in the vex dimension… He thought aloud, "So is this gonna succeed now or does it just constitute an experiment or attempt?"

Jing reactivated Bolt Caster through the toy knife and in frustration slashed open the container on the water cooler, letting it wash out all over the kid's body… and hoping what he was feeling would drain away in that rush of liquid… "Grrr… aaarrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh!"

He continued to plod towards what he knew was Alphys' lab. Karina approached him in the vex space and spoke in a concerned tone within the vex dimension. "Beloved?"

He made for where her cheek would be and found the ceramic metal of the Spektar helmet, "How much better do you think I am doing than Flowey or Harley?" "If you have the will beloved… you'll find the way just yet." She reminded and consoled him.


	29. Drawing of the web

**Drawing of the web**

 _Heroism has an innate stupidity… because it often means throwing yourself at a lost idealistic cause everybody has long given up on or is waiting for somebody else to try… and people in general are assholes... they know you are sacrificing yourself for something… They cheer when you succeed and go "oh well, you shouldn't have." When you don't… that's the reality people face… maybe theres more to doing it than merely a choice or whatever other reasons people who did… But it is difficult to quantify… and any example of it should be respected all the same… make no mistake though, this stupidity is inherent in all clashes… so if you want to be good, be more skilled, powerful or whatever, have some advantage, even if by subterfuge or sheer hard work or even money! Because occupying the moral high ground ham strings you… you will lose to an evil person of equal skill with you, because this is a might makes right world, not right makes might… or… you can be sneaky about doing good, and make sure nobody knows about what you've been doing… I'd say that's the smartest way to act out on it… unless you got divine intervention, that works too. Because a person is smart. People are stupid, dumb panicky animals…_

Jing walked into the lab… only Mettaton was here… he didn't bother looking at the monitor trained on the child, but the lab looked more like an Otaku's room than a place where any actual research occurred… though this was constant with Harley's visit. "Oh my, there you are…. Hmm… Alphys isn't here… she's rushed off to the hospital to see Undyne…"

He fought the urge to get confrontational, "Don't tell me you saved me from the fire and lava only to be another soul stealer…" "Oh darling… yes, I was tempted by that prospect… but over my media coverage I received the most praise and ratings over reporting your little incursions with the royal guard… and I realized I do have a place and purpose down here, maybe I don't need to have that soul and my own to try crossing the barrier after all… In fact, since your actions were the reason I had this epiphany, I'm giving you this coupon, a free stay at MTT resort for as long as you please, to be used anytime, with complimentary meals and room service!" Jing took the coupon in surprise, "Now, I'll be on my way! Be sure not to tip the burger bar operator! Ah ha ha ha ha… Toodles!" With that the rectangular mech rolled away on his single wheel… Jing contemplated the coupon…

Jing went over to the computer and pushed aside a stack of papers that revealed a nona-fabricator… a software to control the machine was activated and blue prints for upgrading a phone were within… he immediately put his phone in… His ghost hovered to his face, "Wow, really?" He replied while pouring over the device, "The options on this thing are amazing, can you imagine if they actually work properly… a jetpack? Seriously now… dimensional box access… imagine if we could get access to our weapon vaults while on the mission."

He started the upgrade process, watching the machine drill, pound, screw, rewire and reprogram the phone… it was no bigger than when he started but a little heavier… Toriel and Papyrus' numbers were still in the memory… it had also gone from a generic early 90s device to a 20xx smart phone in the process… he raided the fridge for a pack of instant noodles and proceeded to the second floor, where he found a clean lab coat too big to have ever belonged to Alphys, this… he also took with him… it would be too big for the child, but he could trim it into a trench coat, being more warlock like… he looked at the name on it… "W.D. Gaster… interesting…"

The arrow and steam vent puzzles were solved last time by presumably Flowey for Harley… he however, would have to deal with them himself… he found with glide he could cheat the conveyer belt compared to somebody land bound… the lava and steam vent puzzles were also trivial… clide made it some of them unnecessary… he went off into a corner and found a frying pan… his ghost commented, "Huh… does it resonate?" He nodded, the pan was once owned by a human… he vaguely recalled the image of a girl clad completely in green cooking with Toriel in her photo album…

The blue and orange lasers… he understood that these were just scanning beams for the real laser to fire, one motion sensitive, the other to let moving objects pass, based on what he knew from Harley's sojourn… to save time however he used the Arc edge and simply walked through with it's guard activated… a little singeing and stinging didn't matter because monster food easily dealt with the light injury… there was a switch at the end which he flipped, offing the lasers… he stepped away for a moment and pondered, then doubled back and turned it on… it had to have been activated for good reason.

He analyzed the large locked door he glided unto behind a mass of pipes he could walk on… solar grenades could plausibly burn clean through it, but he had every intention of lying low now… he would have to find the key or switches to unlock the door instead… he decided to check the paths leading off to the sides… a simple fighter arcade machine served as the lock… he solved it after a glance and moved on, ignoring the lazy students and workers who decided faking ignorance about the crisis his passing through had caused was a good idea.

Through the door and over more steam vents he found Mettaton on the set of a cooking show… to which the robot noticed him immediately. "Cut!" Mettaton rolled over on his wheel… "Alright, I understand you might be a little lost, so I'm going to let you through, but don't wander onto any more sets, again! Away with you now!" Jing moved on and called the elevator… he turned and for a moment though he saw a grey monster in a business suit, but one blink of the child's eyes and he was gone… he boarded the lift wondering if his mind was playing tricks or if he needed to dose on antienthogens right now instead… in addition to the regular taking of the drug, Vex induced episodes dictated an immediate dose… He found himself at San's promised hot dog stand cum sentry station… business seemed good. "Nice timing pal, want a dog?" Jing replied , noting extra equipment in the boothe, "For you to take a break?" The skeleton leaned closer to him , his voice dropping to a whisper over the sentence, "from moonlighting to another actual kind of work…chrono anomaly… here, now…" The equipment started beeping repeatedly when it scanned again… Sans returned change to a Vulkin customer as he analyzed the data, "Oh, maybe it's just you, but then… you are at the very least acausal or paracausal to the flow of time, aren't you?" Jing relented, "Alright, I'll be your fry cook for a bit while you crunch some numbers, but we can talk more about this later." Sans smiled , "Perfect… and don't grab any wet dogs by mistake..." Jing realized one of the hotdog containers below was filled with water sausages somehow, another was labled 'hot cats'… he took an order from Tsunderplaneplane...

He looked at the miniature sapient aircraft, "Thanks for the help earlier by the way." She blushed, "Stop it, it's not like I wanted to save your life, I was saving Undyne's." He handed her the hot dog which rested on one of her wings, "Of course you were…" Tsunderplaneplane scoffed uneasily and left, stealing a glance back.

Sans looked disappointed when he came back. "What happened?" Sans was still smiling as he answered, but there was a mask like quality to the look. "I'd had to have been there right when it happened, not detect it, then run there and find it gone… that's… pretty tough to pull off." "Ah…" Jing replied as he threw a water sausage onto the roof… Sans gave a small laugh at the visual pun. "I used that one on you before didn't I? Go ahead, take as many hotdogs as you like."

Tsunderplane plane was loitering in the next area when he reached it… "psst…." Jing looked around for the sound… "Over here Bakero!" Tsunderplaneplane dropped all pretenses of subtlety and floated over to the child… "Look, it's a heap of stupid puzzles that's a waste of time for you to deal with, I'll fly you up to the top most floor, get on my back…" Jing complied and she took off… "Why're you being so nice to me?" She weaved past a rocky pillar, "Sans said our best hope of returning to the surface is keeping you alive… Some of us think you're going to willingly let Asgore take your soul, and honor the sacrifice… but I know there's more to it than that… he never gave us the whole truth, though he never lied… I'm just going to be nice to you while I have a chance." She landed on a level where the floor was mechanical and plated red… "Ok, ride's over, tell no one about this." "I won't." Jing replied… "I'll kill you if you do… and don't blow any money on Muffet's spider bakesale either, I'd have ferried you the whole way if I didn't need to fly past that rip-off's nest which clogs my engines." Tsunderplaneplane began to take off again. "I appreciate the gesture nonetheless." "Bakero!" she yelled back…

"Muffet…" Jing looked at his ghost in the vex space as he guided the child past Muffet's bakesale and the lamenting salary worker monsters around it. Harley's ghost spoke up, "She was stupid when Harley was killing everyone, had a trap made for her to stop Harley's rampage but decided to try a direct fight instead of evacuating… she may not be a big shot but we can partly blame everything that happened on her…" Jing looked at the crimson shelled machine… "I don't think a mere trap would have stopped Harley or Chara… change to sunsinger." He crossed the larger room which featured more complex but not really much harder versions of the ship arcade game that also acted as a lock… he interfaced with the sparkle he found and went into the next room, which was purple and full of spider webs… massive ones that would leave an arcahnophobe catatonic… covering the floor, ceilings and walls… chattering and unnerving giggling began to break out around him, and he found it difficult to walk through the webbing that covered the floor… but couldn't help and suspect the chatter around him was about the kid… "Ahuhuhuhu... You think your taste is too refined for our pastries, don't you, deary? Ahuhuhu... I disagree with that notion. I think your taste... Is exactly what this next batch needs!" He was knee deep in webs at this point and they were sticky to the point of immobilizing the child… "What the hell are you… gbbbllllpft!" He felt something happen to the child's body as Muffet poured 2 pots of purple tea…

"What the hell?!" He realized he was somehow teleporting between purple weblines instead of being able to walk as spiders the size of cats and dogs rushed down the lines towards the child…"Don't look so blue, my deary~ ...I think purple is a better look on you! Ahuhuhu~" He was feeling some annoyance as he warped left and right under the effects of her tea magic, the silky webs proving too strong for the child's strength to break through. "Why so pale? You should be proud~ Proud that you're going to make a delicious cake~ Ahuhuhu~" Jing watched as the waves of spiders stopped skittering down… he spoke as he evaded,"Ms. Muffet, your smartest course of action now would be to undo these webs and let me pretend I never had this brawl with you." "Let you go? Don't be silly~ Your SOUL is going to make every spider very happy~~"Jing formed a solar grenade and dropped it at the child's feet, burning away the restrictive webbing. "Oh, how rude of me! I almost forgot to introduce you to my pet~ It's breakfast time, isn't it? Have fun, you two~" Jing actually flinched… it was the size of a fallen walker tank, looked like some cake spider hybrid… and he started running as the beast pursued him snapping it's jaws… "The person who warned us about you... Offered us a LOT of money for your SOUL. They had such a sweet smile~ and... Ahuhuhu~ It's strange, but I swore I saw them in the shadows... Changing shape...?" Jing and his ghost looked at each other in the Vex space… and simultaneously reached and voiced their conclusions. "Flowey." Harley's ghost was confused, "Why? What's he…" Karina pulled the crimson shelled ghost back gently… "Let them finish first." The toy knife was drawn and Bolt Caster's blade emerged from it… Muffet's pet was electrocuted with a lightning storm hurled from it… it collapsed and shook the floor with it's landing though it was still clearly breathing… Muffet saw the child's eyes flash with red solar fire… and a similar aura glowed around the human as well… the spiders on the ground recoiled in fear from the sight… "Prepare yourself…" Jing and the child lifted one foot in tandem and began to slide-glide towards muffet… he grabbed her…. "Die 1000 deaths!" Muffet screamed as the world went black and she was assaulted by a rain of blows and blade strikes…. "Messatsu…" '劲' flashed in bright blood red flames on the backs of both the child and the Warlock…It ended…

A particularly large white spider skittered over with a note… Jing snatched it away though the spider was clearly intending for Muffet to get it… "You're disgusting, I bought a cider and donut, identical to the ones you are selling here at a massive discount compared to your prices here! What the hell?! You're just money grubber and I know you want to turn my soul over for cash…" He looked at the now Octo-amputee before him… "Spider limbs grow back… but tell me Muffet, why I shouldn't kill your greedy ass off right here, right now?" He noticed the spider carrying the telegram hopped off the ground and onto the child's hands… pointing frantically at the telegram and then at Muffet. He read it and let the spider take the note back, slowly crawling down the child's body onto Muffet, he kept Boltcaster's blade leveled at Muffet nonetheless… "I… can give you the money…" Jing was exasperated, "You started this bakesale for spiders, and now you want to throw that away for your life… I don't need your damn money! I have heaps of it here! I, am very upset you would bite a hit contract on me for my soul, just for money." He pulled out a fistful of gold coins and tossed them at Muffet… She read the telegram note as the large white spider held it for her… then it skittered off to fetch her phone and started dialing for the hospital… Jing prod her with Boltcaster's sword tip. "This… was just a misunderstanding on my part… wh… what can I give you to make it up?" Jing relented a little, "Spider silk, non-sticky, the strongest and finest you can make… 4 square meters of it will be nice." Muffet clicked her mouth and the spiders in the room set to work… "Ok, spare me please… I… I am sorry." Jing looked at how the coins he chucked at her were being carted off by other spiders nearby, Muffet's eye's slowly filled with horror as she realized that… "I'd say you aren't, but whatever, I'll just take what I want and leave."

Flowey watched as the child left with a bolt of silk under the arm… and the other spiders slowly carried Muffet who was bandaged on all her limbs onto a stretcher made of similar webbing before moving off with her… the large white spider snuck up behind him and sprayed silk all over the back of his head before sticking it's tongue out at him then skittering away… He should have known better, Undyne was sent to the hospital in a very crispy state… what chance did this money grubber have? And he had poured his story out to the child before… how much did the human… this variant of Chara know indeed?

Jing continued onwards… he was at what looked like a medieval set for filming… and then the floor opened several trapdoors simultaneously and he found himself dumped on the ground below… Harley's ghost saw him land on him bum in the vex realm, "Huh… something happen?" Jing saw a wall of fire behind the child start up… "Yeah, a trap." He started sprinting, noting the changing tile color puzzles before him… the red one wouldn't let him put the kid's foot on it, but he got frustrated and there was literally a wall of flame chasing the kid at a pace where he wouldn't escape by solving this normally… he jumped and glided several times, eventually he cleared the tiled puzzle and panted… the fire trap gave out as well. A recorded message blared over the PA, "F-feel the er… pain you made Undyne g-go through! Yours sincerely, … ok, I need to go to the hospital to see her now…" The recording didn't cut even after the sound of footfalls faded from it… Jeanie had to speak on that happening, "Shouldn't you be worried mettaton might be collaborating against us with her?" "I do, but I think his knack of taking her for granted is quite real… we'll deal with it when it comes… they couldn't succeed when trying their hardest to kill Harley anyway." Jing reasoned… he proceeded up the stairs, the nice cream salesman scratched his head while looking at the huge bag of gold he had been given, "Hmm… the Royal Guards bought all my nice cream and the cart with it…" Jing soon reached the entrance of MTT resorts… Sans was waiting on the left of the entrance.

"Heya bud, howsabout some dinner and finishing that conversation we were going to have?" Jing showed Sans the coupon, the skeleton grinned broadly. "Tell you what, I'll go set up my hotel room first then we eat and have a staycation here for a bit." Sans shrugged, "Sure, why not… theres no royal guard orders coming down the chain for a while now and the department's in chaos… though that's partly your doing…" The friends entered the resort together chuckling.


	30. Engine of destruction

**Engine of destruction**

 _If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power... they will talk, they will gloat. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word. Terry Pratchett. IMG_

"Don't you think I was a bit too harsh on the spider woman?" Sans smirked, "Well you knew her legs would grow back… plus that was intentional by you… unlike Undyne… shows how intentions or their absence can actually make things better or worse eh? I know you didn't mean to hurt Undyne though… don't blame yourself for that one… what I do ponder is… were you trying to punish her for actions in that timeline which… to me… us… didn't happen? The one where she decided not to trigger Alphys trap when your friend was in control instead of you… But even then it doesn't really matter, what's done is done… intentions can be quite immaterial at times." Jing began to unload his acquisitions on the child over the journey before Sans finished speaking.

Sans' eye flashed when he saw the labcoat placed next to the spidersilk roll… he had been happy to relax since checking in and sorting stuff out… he immediately put his hand over his eye… "You ok smiley?" "Yeah, gimme a sec… it hurt for a moment…" Sans sat on the bed… he felt something for a brief moment, but couldn't tell what it was… like remembering something important from a dream only to lose it by waking up… and then feeling the void that something had occupied gnaw at him…

They slowly made their way to the restaurant, Jing saw Snowdrake and his father in a corner and smiled… at least that much of his actions bore good fruit… "Now son, try to steal the punchlines and jokes that make the crowd laugh if you really want to follow my line of work ok? Your puns aren't as good as Sans' and he is in his own category, oh there he is! Hey Sans!" "Heya Papadrake!" Sans replied… Jing waved as well… but Snowdrake froze in horror and cowered behind his father shivering… "What's gotten into you son? You never had stage fright before… oh… I see." Snowdrake's dad came over to the child, "Thanks for setting my boy straight… I don't have much left after my… wife…" "Don't make him run away again either, then…" He handed the older monster a solar grenade wrapped like Ikora did for him last time, "Throw this into an open empty space, make sure nobody gets hit by it…"

The waiter soon came over and ushered Sans and Jing to a table… "So, how's the big mystery so far?" Jing looked at Sans through the kid's eyes… "Just getting more and more questions… what did you feel when you saw the lab coat?" Sans' pupils faded,"…That's… can you let me touch it?" Jing looked deep into Sans… the smile was there but he saw pleading in those eyes… "Don't regret it, or make me regret it…" Sans closed his eyes again… "To think I have been always grappling with the urge to kill this kid or not…" Jing fought the instinct to reach for the toy knife, "Every timeline?" Sans closed his eyes, "Probably… how different could I be? A mental wreck using laziness as an excuse for everything because I understand I am at the mercy of forces beyond my control… I even wonder if in this timeline, where I cooperate with you willingly… can you make a difference? Will it make one? Or are you merely an acausal existence, rebelling against how time works, and at the mercy yourself of something outside the law of how time works? Something that changes the timeline every time… because it gets bored or curious, not even out of a moral compass…"

Jing spooned the soup which had been brought to the table and clicked the kid's fingers, showing a mini solar grenade, he beckoned Sans to lean in closer… Sans' heard Preadyth's voice for the first time ever ,

The Vex, have no hope. No Imagination, no drive, no fear! All they have is the pattern. Everything must fit! If it can be made to fit, good! If it can't… it gets cut away.

"Those guys, are acausal and may even be part of your problem… I think me and my people are winning against them because we are somewhat outside the laws of time in nature… and I do have a few reality warper kills on my track record… if nothing else, at least we now know how similar what we are dealing with is eh?" Sans finished a mouthful of soup and dipped his bread in… "I actually have… memories of seeing the surface… riding together with Papyrus in a supercar down a human expressway… well, I get them as dreams… but there are… so many variations of that story… sometimes I see them, sometimes I don't… then I go to bed there… and when I wake up I see my home in Snowdin again… heh…" "You sure you want to touch the labcoat?"Jing pushed… " It's like those dreams… looking on it… but only… I seem to remember why I…" An announcer on stage started talking at this point, interrupting their trains of thought… it was Mettaton, "Ladies and gentlemen… we have a new act tonight, just signed her on… put your hands together for…. Shyren!" "I'll be dipped in Cabal suit oil…" Sans grinned and turned to look at the stage… Shyren looked like she was about to start to sing when she leapt off and waddled to their table… Mettaton took notice of Jing and their eyes met… but his humanoid purplish form merely winked… "It seems our newest star hasn't forgotten her origins! Let's invite her whole old band up on stage! It'll be a special guest item! What do you say darlings?" Sans stood up and Jing followed suit… "Mind if I take the mic a bit before you open?" Shyren nodded to Jing's request… Sans merely pulled his trombone out of nowhere while an electric keyboard was wheeled on stage for Jing… Shyren handed him the mic as he took centre position and grabbed a stone bowl, then placed it before Shyren… she nodded… good enough then, he would get started.

"Am I blue~? Am I blue~?" Sans looked at what his friend was singing… and realized this initial bit was for him just as well… he blew into the trombone anyway… in a jazzy blues style… following Jing on the keyboard. "Ain't these tears in my eyes~ Telling you…~ Am I blue~? You'd be too~ ! If each plan that you had… done~ fell through…." Karina shed a tear in the vex realm… her ghost had been recording what it could see inside, intending to combine footage of the performance with Jing's ghost's memory telemetry later… Jing addressed his ghost in the vex space as his fingers skillfully manipulated nothingness that made the child play the keyboard like a musical maestro… He pointed at his ghost and Jeanie nodded… the child pointed a finger at Shyren and she knew to get ready to use her magical ability to learn any song on just hearing a bit of it… Jing flicked a solar grenade into the stone bowl, a long melody came out during which only San's added to it by blowing his trombone… "Give me time to reason, give me time to think it through… passing through the season, where I cheated you… I will always have a cross to wear, but the bolt reminds me I was there…" The grenade fizzled out as the bowl was superheated at this point, but Shyren flawlessly transitioned from lip-syncing to singing, that the audience was none the wiser… "So give me strength, to face this test tonight~" She leaned back taking a deep breath, "If only I could turn back time~" The restaurant cheered and Mettaton changed back into his robotic rectangular form, printing concert tickets out and rushing out the door to sell them. Sans paused and missed a note on that line… but he caught back up… "If only I had said what I still hide~" He knew the song was for him now, doubtless. "If only I could turn back time~ I would stay for the night. For the night…" And oh how it fit how he felt… "Claim your right to science~ Claim your right to see the truth~ Through my pangs of conscience, will drill a hole in you~" Sans noted the next set of lines but refused to let them give him pause, "I seen it coming like a thief in the night, I seen it coming from the flash of your light…" Sans shed a silent tear and continued playing along with Jing… grateful for how well this human understood him and his existential crisis indeed… He lightly began to join in as well vocally, "So give me strength, to face this test tonight…"

Mettaton had given them pretty much everything in the resort to use as they pleased whenever, wherever for free after that… and their pockets were heavy with gold as well… back at the hotel room Jing picked up the labcoat… a blue aura glowed around it as Sans levitated it out of the child's hands… Jing backed away a little… "I was going to cut that up and weave some spider silk into it to make a bullet proof trench coat or robe for the kid… but if it's important to you…" "That's the problem kid… I know it's supposed to be important to me or mean something… but now I don't even know why… I don't even know why that name tag… W. … If I don't survive touching this, tell Papyrus I… went on vacation." Jing crossed his arms at that, "I don't think it can kill you… good luck." Sans gripped the labcoat.

Jing rubbed his eyes… he thought for a moment Sans had become black and yellow, with blue threads stringing out of his hands… then he was in a pressing suit with a fedora, tommygun slung over his back… suddenly he was in silly armor similar to Papyrus' only colored teal with stars in his eyes and a scarf… then he had a jagged smiled of triangle shaped teeth with a red glow from his eyes and a leather jacket that had a fur hood… the last one was Sans in a deep blue hoodie that had a yellow stripe and sleeves with a similar fur jacket, a star printed on his slippers… Sans was not able to hold onto the labcoat any longer and dropped it… his pupils were out… "You ok smiley?" Sans put his hands over his eyes and rubbed repeatedly… before slowly walking to his bed and tucking himself in… "If we're in this same hotel room with 2 beds tomorrow… tell me what I saw wasn't a dream." Jing sighed and decided to let the kid rest as well… but he had to take his antienthogen dosage first… then he saw the notebook that had belonged to a boy, then a girl who were lost here in the underground… and flipped it open… reading the dairy entries of someone he suspected was Karina as a normal human being in a long lost past.

Sans slept heavily on his bed the whole way through, Jing got up and decided to do a little morning shopping… he found himself at Bratty and Catty's shop… it was manned by them now, unlike when Harley forced an evacuation in her rampage… fortunately the cowboy hat and antique pistol were still present. Bratty's eyes lit up the instant she looked up from her desk at the child, "Like, check it out!" "You like… totally resemble that restaurant band keyboardist yesterday…" Catty chimmed in… Jing decided to feign ignorance and shrugged with a nonchalant, "Huh?" "Oh bummer, it isn't him…" "Yeah, I don't know if that was a he or she, but if the laws of nature allowed it, I'd bear that keyboardist's children…" Catty replied, "You're a gator girl… you lay eggs." Jing let them be and paid for the cowboy hat and gun… at least he had a proper weapon to fire out of now… while Harley had confined herself to Thorn earlier… he'd find a spot to try Tlaloc or scout rifles and maybe even pulse and auto rifles through the thing… then he realized he was so close to the shops Sans had taken him and decided to do a little hardware shopping instead.

Sans woke up to the sound of a busy, whacky workbench… there was a miniature bullpup rifle with a garage made but nonetheless refined look to it on the side… meanwhile the child was weaving as much spider silk as possible into a red and black waist coat meant for monsters… but it would wear like a trench coat on the kid for sure. "You're a busy one huh…" Jing didn't look up as he continues stitching away, though he replied. "Not everybody sleeps until the afternoon…" Sans chuckled, "True, but I…" "I know… and what you saw touching the lab coat wasn't a dream." The room's doorbell rung… Jing laid down the needles and hid the lab coat as well as the gun made form pipes and springs lifted from other mechanisms into the cupboard before Sans opened the door… "Room service!" happily said Mettaton, carrying their lunch. The robot found nowhere to set the food tray down and placed it on the bed instead. "Well now darlings, I see based on your sewing here, you've been anticipating this from me, so let me get right to the point… I want to hire you both alongside Shyren and get the whole package band! Here's the contract, no fine print, don't worry… what you see is what you get! What do you say?" Sans spoke first, "I'm part timing for you at the restaurant already…" Mettaton smiled and brushed the hair from covering his right eye , "Oh yes Sans darling, you are… but really… why focus your talents on the lowest form of humor when you are clearly apt at so much more?" Sans thought about it for a moment and signed… "I still want the nights there though." Mettaton looked slightly annoyed, "Fine, pft…" He approached the child… "Now you, however…" Mettaton leaned closer, bending over… "Listen to me very carefully… I'll work to hide the fact that you're a human from king Asgore until… well, let's not discuss the inevitability of life ending darling! And you'll have a lucrative comfortable life here, fame! Glory! Money! Luxury! It will be the best! What do you say? We can even make amendments and changes after this! We'll take each other together to the heights of monster fame and celebritydom!" Sans backed away… part of him wanted the human to say yes… because it would be easier for them to cooperate against the anomalies and time mysteries they faced… but he knew better, somebody who could move on that level to face his unknown enemy shouldn't stop until what had to be done was done.

"Sorry Mettaton, you've been very generous to me all along, but I'll have to… turn you down… better I be honest with you than say yes and… do my thing." Mettaon closed his eyes and sighed… "Well, Sans, you contract is still active now anyway… pity about your friend here…" Jing turned around to address Mettaton… waving the notebook turned diary… "I read the story of the girl who refused something that was basically identical offered by Asgore himself… amnesty until it's time, and the soul in this place's unnatural magical, ontologically warped nature… rises from the body as an item to collect… because… I'm fighting for everybody to have a happy ending, I won't stop until I get it… and I don't trust Asgore with the 7 human souls to achieve it in my place… the answer is coming now, hovering above Mars as we speak… if I can just…" Mettaton glanced at Sans who just nodded… the roboticized ghost felt tempted at the prospect of his ambitions to perform for humans once again being truly possible… yet doubt still clouded his mind. "Darling, that's not a rehearsed tone of conviction but a genuine one… I still have my doubts though… you can continue to use my resort's facilities for as long as you please… try to have a little fun by accident… you might just decide you really want more."

Jing took Mettaton's advice… backtracking he found an apron that had belonged to another human previously, and even learned of the river person as well as watched Papyrus' formal induction to the Royal Guard… but duty called him more as did his now days long supply of antienthogens… a few days later, at night in the core… Mettaton stopped the child at his stage room in his rectangular form, "If you wanted to leave your last day and chance was really yesterday…" Jing pulled out his now tested and very functional bullpup rifle. "Easy there now Darling, I have no intention of fighting you and I don't think I can win… take this." Jing was surprised as Mettaton handed him the head of his humanoid form, albeit hollowed out… the kid could actually wear it as a helmet, a functional but excessively purple pinkish HUD was present… he took it off the child's head and slung the rifle back into his kitbashed trenchcoat. "Why're you giving me your head?" Mettaton slowly began to wheel past the child and leave the room, "Because you might just coax one little bit of reason out of her by talking to her… and prevent something regrettable..." Jing watched as the door locked once Mettaton exited, he instinctively drew the Bullpup rifle out again, behind it was the power of an overflowing Tlaloc…

The stage's black walls were torn asunder by giant robotic hands… connected to a suit of clunky bolted armor by arms… the animesque war machine filled his vision, far vaster than any Fallen or Vex mechanism he had ever entered combat with or against… comparable in size to Oryx in that final raid… it looked like a well-built knight… except for the strange yellow head that had spiraling red eyes in glasses… in fact it's yellow paint was clearly not dry and still dripping down as the mech moved… "Human! Prepare to die! Behold, the Great Alphys Robo! W-Well, it would have been the gUNDYNEdam… but every time I saw her head on the thing I can't stand it… I… I can't stand what your fight with her did to h-her face and being reminded of how beautiful she used to look! W-When she could still walk… fight… benchpress me and… s-see!" Jing slipped Mettaton's head onto the child… "Where did you get that?! Did you…" Jing replied using it, "Dr. Alphys, I presume… look, Mettaton gave me his head to be able to talk to you… as a fellow mad scientist to another my field of study being death, let me compliment your work here, love the giant mecha…" He couldn't see it but Alphys blushed a little in the cockpit despite the situation, "T-thanks… I based it on… no, nevermind, I have to be determined! I-I… I… have to deliver justice for those you're hurt so badly and U-Undyne! I-it's a miracle nobody was k-killed when y-you had your rampage-ge in Waterfall… or Muffet's nest… but eh least she isn't selling overpriced pastries anymore… oh wait I left it on again! Die!" Jing gritted his teeth and switched to the toy Knife, extruding Bolt Caster's blade form it… "So this is what Mettaton called regrettable… I suppose you don't want to talk."

"NNaaarrrggh! Nooooooooooooooooooo!"


	31. Media Blitz

**Media Blitz**

 _An eye for an eye. Because revenge is a very known feeling in American culture, there's a certain element of an eye for an eye. There's the saying, 'Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.' When you wish for revenge, and you think you've gotten it, what happens then? Revenge is just a really good drive for drama and good action._

 _-Niels Arden Oplev_

He could hear Jeanie chattering away to the others in the Vex realm, but unlike his ghost he was pleased Karina simply replied, "He's got this." Alphys slammed the fingers of the machine blocking his path out… and back… Jing slashed away at the left and right arm's fingers, the armor was thick, but BoltCaster was doing damage… he threw a lightning storm from the blade at the head, which Alphys blocked with some kind of shield… "Y..you think I haven't been researching what you can d-do?!", Jing slid away as another slam of the hands attempted to flatten the child's body… "I've been watching you… m-maybe y-you got a camera or 2, but I know it all! L-lightning, Fire! S-something purple… that's y-your magic-ck!" Jing addressed his ghost… "Put Nirwen's Mercy or the Saterienne Rapier Y2 on… with the party crasher +1 y2 as well…" Jeanie nodded and complied…

Alphys swept the child in the other hand, having done a successful boxing in… she gripped the child and began to tighten her mecha's grip, "Would that I can strap you t-to an operating table… b-but I-I'm not l-like y-you, I d-don't enjoy the s-suffering of others!" Jing responded with a landfall storm trance, which called lightning down, forcing the mech's hand to spasm and free the child… He heard Alphys continue to scream in fury through the Mettaton head, "You think I'm not prepared for this?! C-countermeasures for l-lightning deploy!" He stopped firing lightning immediately when it was having no visible effect and even seemed to be absorbed into the machine… the glasses of the Great Alphys Robo glowed bright red and he used Bolt Caster's arc forged guard immediately… Red beams ravaged the floor and the child's body… he felt the sword's power reserves dwindle, but it held… "Alphys, I never actually hit Undyne directly at all! She insisted on fighting when we fell into the middle of a volcano eruption she started!" He calculated his actions… "Jeanie, is there any trick that she's possibly never seen me pull off?" Jeanie pondered for a moment, speed watching the footage of his sojourn in the underground… "Boss, you've never thrown a Nova bomb… ever… I'll make the switch." "Good girl, blink would be useful here too…" Alphys screamed again her voice becoming more shrill through the Mettaton's head, "LIAR! I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! ALL I S-SAW W-WAS HER ASKING YOU TO GIVE UP AND Y-YOU B-BURNING BRIDGES!"

He swung over the shotgun and blinked through a hand trying to pull a pulverizing pancake on the child, landing atop it's back he pointed the shotgun at finger joints and let it have a Party Crasher +1's round… the finger blew off entirely… leaving sparking wires and inactive frame work… "Minimetts! Begin repairs!" Alphys' war mech backed away from the now battered and crumbling stage… Jing saw a replacement finger for the machine being brought over by the familiar constructs Mettaton used against Harley… he was an adept rifleman however and shot two down immediately… Alphys noted the new gun, "Y-you want to face a m-mecha with a homemade rifle?! You're as stupid as you are d-desperate and cruel!" The Great Alphys Robo other hand projected an energy spear out… one that was taller than the mech itself, she drove it down like a stake into the stage… but the attack was so telegraphed Jing had the child far out of the way by the time it hit… though there was a blinding flash and electric whine as the attack finished… "Oh no, that blew out the Determination reactor… grrr… come on, get b-back online! I-I m-must avenge Undyne!" Jing sprinted to the inert left fist of the machine on the stage and started firing into every finger with the party crasher, he could hear Alphys screaming , "S-Stop that!" the fingers were torn clean from that hand… and several point blank lightning storms from bolt caster soon had the hand whining while fried, it's electricity conversion systems not working properly when the rest of the mech was offline, the hand blew up… he felt Karina snatch the Party Crasher + 1 off his back in the Vex realm and heard her chambering shotgun rounds into it, reloading for him…

"N-No… No… No! Yes! System r-rebooted!" a whir of servos confirmed to him that the Great Alphys Robo was in working order again… Jing saw the minimetts had just about finished welding a replacement finger onto the remaining damaged right hand, and began to pick them off with his primary weapon. "RRaaarrrgh!" Alphys swept the platform as if the machine was trying to swat a fly with it's right arm… Jing blinked backwards, but appeared behind the hand after it passed and had turned around mid blink, firing his party crasher and tearing off another finger on the mech's remaining hand… He was glad Karina helped him reload… "Boss, the whole machine's destroyed parts were bursting with energy… your super is ready…" Grateful to Jeanie's tip he began to look for a chance to fire off the Nova bomb… and began provoking Alphys by firing at the glasses of the mech… while it's hand was being swept back again… the right lens cracked and shattered, showing sparking systems behind that reminded him of Rasputin's bunker… and in the cockpit of the machine… "Y-You should have b-been dead at the tile puzzle!" In her blind fit of rage she threw an uppercut with the machine… destroying half the stage… Jing took the brief instant the fist paused in the finishing position to discharge Nova bomb… the mecha's hand shattered and lost its fingers on initial impact… and the lingering vortex destroyed it beyond repair as Alphys tried to pull away, succeeding, but not in time. "H-ha… y-you think t-that's it? I have s-surplus power now! Fire! Determination! Laser!" The chest of the machine opened and emitted a blinding flash of destructive light… Jing blocked with the sword's arc forged guard, but even through the child's eyes that were squeezed shut… it was bright as day… he felt the sword fail, but the kid was alright… the blade protruded back out of the toy knife as Karina fired up a Heavy Synth on it for him… but the great Alphys robo was nowhere in sight when the child's eyes recovered enough to see…

A sudden rumbling happened as the Great Alphys Robo suddenly burst out of the floor it had punched, finishing the stage off… and it began to advance forward with thundering footsteps… Jing turned and began to run… jumping and whipping around via glide, firing what shots he could which pinged off the reactivated shields… Alphys had a look of manic fury on her face… enough to make her sweat seemingly… he heard her speak, "Everybody get out of the city film set! Now!"

The glasses began to charge again as the mech demolished the remnants of the stage by walking into it… instead of a laser though a series or spiraling red orbs came out , "Hmph, you must have damaged it badly, but it's still w-working!" He continued to backpedal away as the orbs blasted a hole in the wall on the far side, which he elected to go through, finding himself on the rooftop of an aged building… Alphy's burst through in her mech, continuing the advance… he sprinted and leaped off the roof top while the machine rumbled along behind, shaking the ground with each step… he blinked onto a roof top of a long but lower building… Alphys' voice crackled into his impromptu helmet again, "Charging completed with you in the p-perfect p-position! Great timing!" The chest of the machine opened, revealing the massive laser cannon it housed… it whined louder and louder as the device began to glow… he leaped and blinked just as the whine stopped… a blue-white laser burst out of the device… it missed the child but cleared the roof of any antenna, water tanks and stair exits… he plugged away at the laser cannon with his rifle as best he could… Alphys panicked a little, bringing the chest armor back up over the device… he zoomed in on her for a moment with his rifle scope… she looked haggard and seemed to be sweating profusely… "Doctor, you don't look so good… how about we stop fighting and you go check yourself into the hospital?" Alphys shook herself and clenched her fist, "I can't go back there yet without s-stopping you… did y-you know she confessed to me! S-She s-said… 'I'm sorry, I'll never see that cute dorky face of yours ever again.' And she stroked my cheek while at that…" Alphys was crying… "W-We'll never watch anime t-together ever again…" He saw Alphys focus with battle fury again and drew Bolt Caster, "…and she still smells like fried fish b-because of y-you!" Alphys concluded. Jet engines propelled the mech up into the air as much as it jumped to help as well…. He started sprinting… as a shadow formed, cast by the mech and growing larger and larger after he heard the engines cut.

Mettaton flew over the scene… as the Great Alphys Robo thunderously landed in what remained of his urban scene film set…collapsing most of the long building and several other smaller ones nearly by, cratering the ground… the dust slowly began to settle… he received data from Alphys , "M-Mettaton, help me look for data based on t-this energy p-pattern!" the rectangular boxy robot complied but his curious, "Alphys darling, you sound really tired, why not take a break?" She didn't answer… so he decided to probe instead, "And what is this you want me to look for? It's only your robot that has it…" The mech turned around to face his hovering form, he gasped in horror at how Alphys appeared, "It's a p-power only humans have… it's called d-determination… my robot is using it as a power source…" "Hm… 2 power sources? I should look into that…" Alphys gasped, "But I only had one Determination reactor!" She looked at her interface… it was now starting to fill with red text of reporting escalating amounts of system failures… the legs were taking catastrophic damage… Jing's voice sounded throughout her cockpit, "It's over doctor…" Alphys banged her control panel with both fists… not noticing the sweat her fists left behind was the same color as her skin… "It's never over!" The upper half of the torso and shoulders ejected themselves from the waist which was now sparking and exploding all the way down to the legs… Mettaton saw the human blink behind a large piece of the wreckage… and then he saw his jet legs arc past and impale themselves onto the metal, tearing off a car door… "Hey Alphys! Those fabulous things are meant for me!" Alphys saw as the human boarded the car door and somehow steered it towards the gate of the set, using the jet legs impaled into it as an improvised rocket powered sled to flee… "I'll make you replacements later!" The head and torso of the Great Alphys Robo roared after the child, now flying faster and more energy efficient in attacks due to having no more need to power its limbs… Alphys jettisoned the shoulders as well to make the mech more narrow… several minimetts pursued the machine with a new pair of glasses similar to the damaged pair on its head.

"I have no idea where to go now…" Jeanie spoke up, "Boss, is that rocket exhaust from your sensory feed?" Jing sighed as he turned the child's head to look just when they made it to a downward slope… The machine had replaced it's damaged eye wear… Alphy's voice shrieked at him, " I don't know why… but I have never been more determined to kill you than ever!" Jeanie whispered to the others, "She actually spoke without a lisp and stutter!" Jing steered the rocket powered car door right as a red laser tore down the road where he would have been… he spotted a minimett cluster in front and sent a Bolt Caster electrical storm at them to clear the path, then picked the remainder flying around the mech with Nirwens Mercy shots… He had to swerve again to avoid a car in front as well as another laser blitzkrieg by Alphys… he shifted to the center and stared the mech down… taking Mettaton's head off… Alphys saw a bright whitish purple glow from the child's eyes as she powered up both lenses of the glasses laser to fire…

The child crouched and jumped then vanished… suddenly she saw the glasses laser system fall away, cleaved into clean halves… she shrieked as three bursts of three bullets struck her windshield followed by Mettaton's head shattering it… the child spun gracefully with the sword flaring it's defensive energy… this was it, she had failed to avenge Undyne… and her body… she thought she was burning up with determination… but now… now... the human recoiled once on getting a look at her… but charged up a big mass of purple energy and hurled it… sirens blared throughout the cockpit as the reactor began to go critical… she found it hard to move… the human held the back of the chair and slammed the bright red eject button… they were both launched out of the head of the Great Alphys Robo…

Jing landed… and watched as the remains of the mech continued to jet down the steep downwards street incline… before arcing back into the air in a loop and exploding… but the remains of the machine still had inertia and continued flying… he tracked and the wreckage flew towards the core building… he cringed… expecting an explosion from the impact… but there wasn't one despite the loud crash… however the streetlights of monster city as well as several of the taller buildings began to go out as the damaged core was no longer providing electricity… as if the city lights were candles and a wind was blowing them all out from the side closest to the core… to the others…

"I… deserve this… ungh… this is… what I put them throughhhhhhhhhh~" Jing looked at Alphys, her words slurring as her body seemed to become like jelly and less solid… "Ha… sssshouldn't hhhhave… reeeeeeeplaced… Undynnnnnnnne'ssssssss headdddddd…d" he looked around and spotted a blue plastic tub outside an aquarium, he sprinted over and grabbed it… "Beeeeeetterrrrr Determinatiiiiiioooooon….. rrrrrrraaaaaaaaddddddiiiiiiaaatttttiiiiiooooonnnnnnn… ssssssshhhiiiieeeeellllllddddggggghhhhhh….hhhh…. " Mettaton landed next to him and helped move it as well, they placed it at Alphys' feet as she oozed off the chair… into the tub… recognizable as Alphys… but as if she was made of jelly… she wasn't dissolving further though… the noises she made were pained grunts and seemed to be words… each of her movements sounded from the plastic tub with a sickening 'plop'.

Several monsters were coming out of their homes and candles were being lit to cope with the power outage as well as in reaction to the massive crash noise that had been made by the ending of their fight and jet engines thundering throughout their city… Jing watched Asgore dismount from an ornithopter… the people began to crowd around him… but Papyrus' voice was clearly present, "Make way please, don't block the king…" He slowly began to back away into a back alley… Mettaton's voice still clear among the crowd, "Don't touch her… only I can… because I am made of metal… oh Alphys…"

He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around with Bolt Caster drawn… "Easy there, you're gonna poke someone's eye out with that…" Jing kept the toy knife as it's blade faded, "Eye already poked out… when…" Jing didn't finish his sentence, but Sans knew that half-hearted pun was referring to Undyne who was now blind… her remaining good eye having received but a granule of molten rock… "Come on, you can't stay here… I heard that crash from the hotel room and woke up immediately…" There was the sound of a door cracking open and that alleyway was empty… nobody investigated that noise as Mettaton cried for his friend he had been taking for granted despite being in his boxy robotic form and Asgore tried to calm and reassure his people about the city wide blackout and the biohazard of a royal scientist now before them…


	32. Emperor's Fall (Ground Zero)

**Emperor's fall: Ground Zero**

 _A king is dead, but his power lingers._

 _A king is dead, and with him the fatal flaw._

 _This was not conquest, this war where Light yet offends._

 _This was selfish — a father's rage in place of a king's measured hand._

 _There was a time to conquer the Light that a purer truth might overtake all that played at inspiration._

 _That time was not now._

 _A son's failure brought about the father's fall._

 _A king is dead. His power lingers unclaimed._

 _A king is dead. His pride in a lineage meant to stretch across time and stars serving as his undoing._

 _But Noru'usk has no lineage to consider._

 _Noru'usk has no flaw._

 _He is a soldier. A general. A maker of war._

 _Once a servant, his eyes turn toward the vacant throne, there for the taking on the other side of this temporary cage._

 _A king is dead. Good riddance._

 _A king will rise._

 _If not Noru'usk, another._

 _If not another..._

 _Noru'usk, Servant of Oryx(?)_

MTT news was never the most popular show, but today it was… he sighed on the couch of Papyrus and Sans' home, which was also now his current spot to lay low… "Now this developing story began for us in Snowdin… where upon there was a fire scandal and a long term hearing loss injury inflicted on the dog royal guard… which cumulated in the human's capture by recently instated Royal Guard, Papyrus… who has been praising his brother for besting the human in combat…"

Jing continued watching the TV… meanwhile Asgore paced to his throne room… he smiled at Papyrus who saluted him on the way… he had his sleep disrupted last night… but slept more hours to compensate… and awoke tired nonetheless… he paused at the throne room's entrance and made his way down to where the tomb was… and paused afore all the children whose souls had been taken for his plan… he heard Toriel's voice in his mind…

"You can't do this…" Asgore turned to face his wife, not knowing this would be the last conversation he would have with her. "And why not?! We were jailed… and now we are childless… our people… will die, if there is no hope…" Gerson waited for them near the throne room as Toriel, on the brink of tears followed her husband… a younger Walter was present as well… "We talked about this before…" Asgore looked at the tortoise, "This time is different… I have the will… I only need to wait for the means to destroy them for this…. This… outrage!" Toriel's voice was trembling as she spoke, "You don't know the truth of what happened to Asriel up there!" Walter handed Asgore a report which he read… he trembled with fury… if it wasn't bad enough to have just lost his son, the effect despair was having on his people was worsening the situation, "More monsters have collapsed in the street just because of the ill news! We need to give them hope… what better hope is there than to return to the sun… a great journey to the surface…" Asgore noticed Toriel had moved to stand next to Gerson at this point… "You don't have the stomach or conviction to do this… or to do it correctly…" she wasn't looking at him anymore…

Karina and the other's watched his ghost show the telemetry of what he was seeing while he contemplated… he couldn't hide here and risk burdening Papyrus or Sans either… Jing continued to watch the television where the reporters weren't Mettaton for once… "The human was then handed over to Captain Undyne of the Royal Guard… where upon it promptly displayed powerful lightning magic and made an escape… after 2 days battling in Waterfall, the human thoroughly routed the Royal Guard and has incapacitated the organization with near total casualty rates… although… there, in my personal opinion, miraculously weren't any casualties…"

Asgore returned to the entrance of his throne room… his crown felt heavy at the moment… he pondered recent events as he looked at this corridor….

Gerson however spoke with a tranquil fury that was clearly barely contained from exploding , "Your journey…" The turtle looked up at him and leveled a finger , " …Is a lie! When this façade of yours begins to crumble… and the culmination of your journey… a poisonous false hope sweeps through this city… I fear your nature as a boss monster will not save you from the tide of despair that drowns all our people then!" Asgore seethed with anger… both from the loss of his son… and Gerson… he looked at the throne on his right and realized it was empty… "Where is Toriel? Where is my wife? Where is your queen?!" Nobody dared to answer or look at him… he got up and ran out of the throne room, "Toriel?! Toriel?! Toriel?!"

"After Captain Undyne, who we are relieved to announce is in stable condition, tracking on the human was lost for a few more days around hotland… and… we are cutting to a developing story by our chief anchor who is out in the hospital today…" The footage slowly panned over to Mettaton in what looked like a hospital wing… one could only imagine how a boxy rectangular frame could look so sad… "Dr. Alphys is warded here after a regrettable battle in an attempt to avenge captain Undyne's injuries which include loss of use of her remaining eye… currently I am the only one who can make contact with her without… special equipment… she seems… at peace with her situation and once an established means to communicate with her in her current state was established… she insisted the replacement royal scientist or anybody, really… check the lower floors of the lab… who can.. 'help with what she did wrong…' and I… I… really wish she didn't try to fight the human… erm… stay tuned for Shyren and Sans coming up next…. Oh Alphys…"

Asgore sat on his throne… his mind flashing through the various children who had come to him asking for passage back to the surface… and the means he offered to secure their souls…

Walter's armor was covered in dust and stained red… he carried a body that could have been an adult human woman… but Asgore knew this was also a child… he had offered her amnesty and comfort in exchange for her soul when her time came… she had refused and became a fugitive… news came the day before that she had been cornered in waterfall… "Sire, as you… ordered." "Where is the rest of your unit?"Asgore noted the lack of numbers… "They have… fallen in the line of duty your majesty… this human was… exceptionally strong… we only succeeded because her body… gave out." Asgore's brow furrowed… "I should have taken to the field myself, I'm sorry Walter, for putting you, all of you through this… to make my lie… a truth…"

"King Asgore had a public message to deal with the current situation earlier today… let's play that again." "My people… do not despair, though many have been injured… by this human, it actually is a time to rejoice! For out of the 7 souls we need, 6 have been acquired, and now the final one has been found… it may be days or months… but our day to stand in sunlight once again, has never been closer! Let us prepare for that day with hope and joy… vigour… what is some tighter electricity usage control in the face of that?" Asgore beckoned the camera man to approach closer to him, "If you are seeing this, human… harm no more of my people… come to me. This doesn't have to end in your blood being spilled… you have free passage… my people… do not try to stop or fight the human." Jing switched the TV off and got up… changing into his regalia and gathering the weapons… "I wonder if Mettaton hates me now…" He said to Karina. "Even if he does beloved… your passage is still at least better than Harley's isn't it?" he looked up at his lover, "By how much? And… our problems too… can I crack them?" "We're guardians… we can wait until the age of the last city comes again… if nothing else works, that's our way home…" Karina replied… "Well, lets see how this experiments succeeds or…" He looked back at her as he got the child to continue wearing the spider silk trench coat over the Temmie armor… "If nothing else, waiting for our time to war on the darkness with you isn't so bad… if only I could be out there with the kid instead of using the poor child as a proxy... oh and we better keep an eye on Harley if this is what fate has instore for us…" "Didn't you say Guardians make their own fate beloved?" he had no answer for that now though…

No more pretenses… some gasped as the child walked through Snowdin… with weapons and reached the river person… he didn't wear a hood over the kid's head this time… as the boat somehow sprouted four legs and sprinted on water, heading for Hotland… Gerson waved as they passed waterfall…

Hotland and the long final walk began… Mettaton showed them to the lift… "Why're you helping me still?" The robot looked at them , "I don't blame you, it was Dr. Alphys' choice… if anything while there's still time, accept my contract… or be the new royal scientist… Asgore will perform genocide on humanity if you let him take your soul… that will be regrettable, I'll have nothing to look forward to on the surface… but then, you look like you've already made your choice, darling…" Monsters began to point, notice and comment as he made his way up through the resort… and an entourage began to build as the child went on through the core… leading to a small crowd chattering behind the kid as he passed through New Home… they were chattering… "This is the human?!", "It's answering Asgore's call…" ,"We… we're going to be… free…", "The final human… but this is also the strongest right? Can king Asgore win?" , "The sun… we will finally see the sun again…", "Is the human sacrificing itself for us?" All of that was cut off when several meters of blue and white magic bones spiked up behind him in the judgement corridor, separating the crowd from him, though nobody was struck… a shadowy figure appeared behind the bones and slammed the doors to the hallway shut. "This is the kind of thing the king didn't want! Go home! Nyeheheheh!" Papyrus turned around to speak to him… he was now clad in proper armor… Jing watched as the lankier taller skeleton approached the child… and embraced the kid… "Human… a lot has happened and… well, I want to thank you for helping make my dreams come true! You even inspired Sans somehow… he seems happier and less lazy at anything nowadays…" Sans stepped back from the embrace, his smile saddened a little nonetheless… "As a royal guard now, I am supposed to stop you from reaching the king or catch you… but since the King made his message on tv I guess that's all well and good… you know… I don't think you're bad… but now that I've seen what happened to Undyne… and Alphys… and the city always having blackouts… maybe I was selfish… if my becoming a royal guard caused all these things… perhaps it's better if I never got to be one… you wouldn't have needed to plan for me… and all of them won't be in pain from it… Undyne told me I was captain now even… I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be to hear her say that…" Papyrus stopped for a moment… not smiling anymore… he reached into his pocket and handed a small package over, there was a note written on it. "Anyway, Sans is too busy with Royal Guard recruiting and administration for now, as well as his night performances, but he told me to give you these… for 'if and when you feel things can be better and need his help again.' Nyeheh…" Jing took it into his hands and stored it in the trench coat… "Thanks Papyrus…" "You're welcome human… part of me thinks this is goodbye, probably… I'm sad… but be nice to the king ok? I'm sure he'll just let you through if you ask nicely…"

The rest of the walk was familiar enough… and now he stood afore the throne room…. It was time for the unfortunate inevitabilities. He stepped into the buttercup covered room… "King Asgore!" The figure tending to his plants turned… "Your majesty… I am here in response to your challenge." Asgore looked surprised… even a little horrified… as if he didn't want or expect the child to turn up just like this. "Oh… oh my…" The king's deep voice is wrought with hesitation… Jing senses somebody chained by duty and what he feels he really wants… and what needs to be done… "This doesn't need to end with either of us dead your highness… we can talk." Asgore is piqued a little by this and strokes his beard… "You're not just another child are you? Are you a mage secretly tasked to destroy us? Indeed you are powerful… and by striking at the leadership… you know we will lose hope, and more of my people will fall… to never rise again…don't you." Jing contemplated his answer carefully… "That's not my intent… I merely wish to leave and return to the surface…" Asgore smiled and nodded sadly… "But you know how things are… it's a beautiful day outside… I can hear birds singing from the surface… we could merely play catch or have some tea together… but for one such as you… I think you know how things are… how they have to be… don't you? Follow me when you're ready…"

Karina tapped him on the shoulder, "He certainly isn't…" Jing held her hand for a moment feel her fingers wrap around the back of him palm… "…he probably never will be… he looks… just like Oryx did." His ghost stopped broadcasting his sensory telemetry for a moment, "Boss, it's a chance to back out I think… he really looks like he doesn't want to." He gestured for all the ghosts to come forward in the pocket dimension… "The Traveler is on Mars making rain as we speak here and now… perhaps you can talk to her again in this timeline… all of you will be the ones to make the difference… I suppose this makes me a very poor tactician among our little trinity here… relying on sheer power rather than smarting my way through this conundrum… but to do that, we need to return to the surface… and to return to the surface… is to face Asgore." Karina squeezed his shoulders and rested her head atop his, "Just remember, at least you're leaving this place full of life, it's still better than Harley did…" Jing pondered on that… "Is it? The way some of these guys were mauled and maimed by me… maybe death would have been kinder to them."

The child followed Asgore, who had a hesitance to his gait… Jing contemplated the worn dagger he acquired from the same place Harley found that glowing red magical knife… would it be simpler, and easier… certainly faster to just cheap shot Asgore from behind now? He decided he wouldn't… the fast easy way with the quick reward were never virtues… he would try to talk the king down first. "How about that cup of tea your majesty?" The king paused as the containers of 6 souls popped up before what must be the magical barrier locking monsters underground. Asgore was hesitating… Jing however, understood the underground far better than Harley did and presented the pie Toriel had given him so many days ago… it hadn't degraded one bit… he sliced it into half with the Arc edge's blade coming out of the old dagger. Asgore took it with both hands… he trembled… "T…this… where did you get this? How…" Jing bit into his half, "We can talk, like creatures of reason… we don't have to fight your majesty…" Asgore seemed on the verge of breaking down as he bit into the pie slice in his hands..

Jing's eyes trained on the blue soul in the jar… was he looking at the original form of Karina? Asgore set up a pair of chairs and a table… pouring a cup of tea… Jing whispered to his ghost a plan to relay to Karina just in case… he wondered if the tea was poisoned… but then as he sat at the table Asgore sipped his cup himself, which was poured from the same teapot… it was good tea, he hadn't quite tasted any such combination of tea leaves to produce this flavor in the city.

"Human… tell me, where is my… wife?" Jing looked at Asgore… he had a pleading look to his face… "I'm sorry your majesty… I cannot, tell you that…" Asgore looked at the child and his brow furrowed… "Why?" "She… the way she spoke of… you, your name… if I were to ever hear somebody speak of me in that manner… I'd rather sleep and never wake again." Asgore slammed his fist on the table… Jing immediately leapt up and glided back… "So be it, I will show her I have the conviction and that my plan is not a false hope… prepare yourself! Human… it was nice to meet you… goodbye."

Jing drew out Bolt Castered and trigger the guard and Asgore started with several trident swings… he gasped as the human's energy defense didn't seem weakened in the slightest… his trident cracked and crumbled into metal powder and pieces… he prepared an inferno from the ground… to Asgore, he merely saw the sword the human wielded change from a blue defense to purple… that had been achieved by Karina charging her Dark Drinker with a heavy synth and handing it to Jing once his Bolt Caster's energy was burned out… "Incredible… I…" Asgore tried to ready another flame assault… but found it hard to do so…

"You can feel it, can't you… your majesty…" Asgore began to find it hard to stand… "There was once a god-king who acted as you did… I had my hand twisted into slaying him… this sword was his… it was once named willbreaker…" Asgore felt his legs begin to become too tired… he was about to be forced onto his knees… " And this sword… because you mirror its old master so well… it knows exactly how to speak to you as well… having listened to so many through rock, metal and time… now with it, I shall talk… and you… shall listen." That was it… Asgore realized he had no choice but to listen he couldn't even form a sound in his throat. "I am dealing with an enemy… or enemies rather… whose will warp history and distort facts of time… if you'd kindly let me pass… I may even find an answer for your people's predicament along the way…" Asgore felt strength return to his lungs and began to manage to speak again , "Then… despite your great power… don't you know the only way through the barrier is a monster soul in tandem with a human soul?" Asgore saw the child's face darken, "You have 6 such souls here… why didn't you just use one… go to the surface and claim five more of a dying human, or even kill some with your magic or containers… then come here and liberate your people?! You know the truth of your matter, don't you?" Asgore looked up… "I let my fury cloud my reason and judgement… indeed, my people began to suffer from the bleak situation… we… need hope as much as food to exist, being composed of mostly magic… it's why it's so easy for humans to hurt us… if they want to… I promised to destroy humanity and that we monsters would rule the surface once again… but now, I dreamed of finding my wife with you, to show her I have changed… but I see now that is a false hope… a dream of… absolution. Then take my soul… and return to the world above… I only beg that you return and free my people…" Jing realized Asgore's trident was reforming superheated… pointing back at the king himself this time… "Wait, your highness… don't!"

Jing closed his eyes and sighed as Asgore drew his final breaths…when he opened them again… Asgore's soul trembled before him, as Toriel's had before Harley… he would have to take it now then… he stepped forward… but the familiar pellets he had never seen in a long time except Harley's memory telemetry were present, they caved in on the soul and it cracked down the middle, the grey white remnant of Asgore shattered. He drew Bolt Caster out once more… "Flowey… no, Asriel… why would you kill your own father?!"

"You idiot… Chara can you hear me in there? Or… whoever, whatever you are… if you can have your fun playing with the timeline… what makes you think I wouldn't want to? I had more experience doing this than you after all… this is just a game… and in this game, it's kill or be killed!" The souls were pulled out of their containers and absorbed into the manically laughing sentient plant whose face bloated and distorted…


	33. Omega

**Omega**

"MEMORY'S SO TREACHEROUS. ONE MOMENT YOU'RE LOST IN A CARNIVAL OF DELIGHTS, WITH POIGNANT CHILDHOOD AROMAS , THE FLASHING NEON OF PUBERTY, ALL THAT SENTIMENTAL CANDY-FLOSS ...

THE NEXT , IT LEADS YOU SOMEWHERE YOU DON'T WANT TO GO...

...SOMEWHERE DARK AND COLD, FILLED WITH THE DAMP, AMBIGUOUS SHAPES OF THINKS YOU'D HOPED WERE FORGOTTEN.

MEMORIES CAN BE VILE, REPULSIVE LITTLE BRUTES. LIKE CHILDREN, I SUPPOSE. HAHA.

BUT CAN WE LIVE WITHOUT THEM? MEMORIES ARE WHAT OUR REASON IS BASED UPON. IF WE CAN'T FACE THEM, WE DENY REASON ITSELF!

ALTHOUGH, WHY NOT? WE AREN'T CONTRACTUALLY TIED DOWN TO RATIONALITY!

THERE IS NO SANITY CLAUSE! 

SO WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF LOCKED ONTO AN UNPLEASANT TRAIN OF THOUGHT, HEADING FOR THE PLACES IN YOUR PAST WHERE THE SCREAMING IS UNBEARABLE, REMEMBER THERE'S ALWAYS MADNESS.

MADNESS IS THE EMERGENCY EXIT... 

YOU CAN JUST STEP OUTSIDE, AND CLOSE THE DOOR ON ALL THOSE DREADFUL THINGS THAT HAPPENED. YOU CAN LOCK THEM AWAY...

FOREVER." 

― Alan Moore, Batman: The Killing Joke

Karina stirred slowly Harley was still next to her and blacked out… she could hear Jing muttering to his ghost and calculating numbers while tinkering with the fins ripped off Theosiyan that he wore on his arms… next to him were Crota's chalice of light and the aegis of Kabr… she moved over… "Beloved?" He continued working while muttering… she leaned closer… "beloved?" "One moment… stupid plant jacked the 6 souls… I'm still awake because of the sword guard.. and now because of him for some reason I'm not controlling the kid anymore… we have to get out there, the helpless child is along and facing him…" He equipped everything… and triggered radiance… he fired the blast… there was a hole similar to when he fired on Chara… "Come on." She sprinted out followed by him… and watched the child nervously touch the sparkle before them… the earth shook several times…

Flowey's form looked the same for now… but he was far larger… and flickering… slightly ethereal… as if in the middle of some energy related metamorphosis… "I knew something was weird! No witty words, no Chara knife… whatever you are… and whoever these are…" Flowey said as Jing and Karina ran to the child… "Stay close to us, and behind us." Karina instructed the child… "So you've been the ones really doing the stuff! Not this… Chara wannabe! No matter, 7 souls… for god-hood… I have 6… and 3 more to choose from before me… should I go for 9? How powerful will I be then… I can feel them wriggling…" Jing stepped up and flourished Bolt Caster, "Look, we've killed a lot of things that have been way more powerful than you for a lot of our lives, how about you just stop now, game over already." Flowey flashed a demonic face in response, the kid screamed but Karina and Jing didn't flinch an inch. "You really think you can fight me?! I'll show you all who's boss!" Flowey burrowed again… Jing gave an exasperated sigh, "Can you at least argue with me in a way that makes it less obvious you're just a kid who needs a lesson in manners?"

Flowey slowly returned in a form that was as much machine as plant… he had a television screen atop a face that looked like a composition of a deliberately mangled face on photoshop, his 6 petals now resembling metallic chains or pipes… and claws for his arms which easily encircled them… "He he he he hah ha ha ha ha, ah ha ha ha ha!" Jing gripped his sword's hilt with both hands and moved himself to be in front of the child… the kid noticed the tentacles on his gloves twitch very erratically for an instant and glow with yellow words… but didn't know if it was important enough to say anything… Jing started taunting, "I am not impressed Flowey, I'd think you can do a bit better than a little shop of horrors reject with the power of 6 souls… but what's there to expect…. You're just a brat whose letting power get to his head… assuming you haven't gone mad already. " The TV screen showing a face with a red eyes and green pupils giving a hellish smile comically turned into a stunned frown before it was replaced with normal Flowey's face for his next batch of words. "S-…s-shut up!" Karina used her twilight garrison to avoid the storm of tree trunk thick spikey vines that lashed out while Jing scooped the child up and glided away from the spot… "Stand behind a guardian and be protected. Stand beside a guardian and be respected… stand against one and… well, you said it best yourself earlier… Flowey." Karina spoke in a slightly annoyed voice, "You mind not heckling the eldritch world devouring abomination next time darling?" Jing shrugged as he evaded bees and wasps summoned from a venus flytrap that was gobbling them up on Flowey's left arm "But big girl… it's just a kid on a sugar rush… well, swap power for sugar but really, all the same!" Karina started shooting the bees down with her Lethe Noblesse, "That's why maybe you should be nicer to this one!" Flowey attempted to swipe her with his right arm but found himself stopped by Karina's left arm… "Stop talking about me like I'm a… Grrr… I think Chara was real for a moment… let's see if I can't bring her back from you all…" Flowey said as one of his petals began glowing light blue and teal… Jing and the child with him were warpped away just as a solar grenade landed on Flowey's venus fly trap, burning it away and stopping the summoned insect swarms.

The child huddled closer to Jing, "Sir… I'm scared… what's going on?" Jing's attempt to suppress his thoughts of concerns for the kid… how he made made the child see so much violence and even experience death itself… failed , "Aren't you scared of me too?" The kid took his hand, "A little, some of the stuff you did… I don't understand, but you do want to help me… right?" He carried the child in one arm and continued wielding Tlaloc in his other… he let himself feel a little relief, but no more, now wasn't the time. "Yes, yes I do… what's your name kid?" He looked around in the distorting space as the child replied, "It's Frisk…" Something was forming… becoming more concrete… yet incomplete in it's own way… but he knew what he was looking on… "Ugh… I'm back… how? Oh… ah… Asriel you idiot… wrenched from eternal slumber again and… depowered…" said a slightly ethereal Chara… Frisk screamed on turning to look at the source of that voice… "It's ok, I won't let her hurt you." Chara pulled out a toy knife which turned into a black and red variant of Sol edge… Jing jumped over her with a glide as she charged… "Ah… so much of my powers are missing…", Jing whispered to Frisk, "She can't teleport anymore? I need to put you down, trust me ok?" Frisk nodded… "Its funny, I thought I hammered the timeline until it rang and rang and rang… yet you… just your actions pulled my nail out… and now if I am lucky maybe in this space twisted by Asriel… I can hear and just remember a little bit of the power I had…" Chara jumped and swung the blade which Jing parried… he realized while this Chara remembered the prior timeline, she didn't have all her prior abilities… the blade work she was putting out however, was on par with Harley's… Frisk remained behind Jing as he and Chara circled each other… "You're not even trying to actually hit me…" Jing retorted, "What do you know? Being only something that feeds on the power of others?!" Chara smiled and her eyes lit up crimson red , "Enough to know that you know what Asriel and I want here… me with a soul… whether one he stole… or that juicy red one hiding behind you…" Frisk pulled out the toy knife, though Jing didn't notice… "You're just a twisted thing, an echo… a memory… a legacy… of something that now didn't happen… a shouldn't have been… an unthing, even… a memento of a kid driven insane, whose actions and selfishness dragged everyone down in the end…" Chara actually looked hurt by Jing's words, "You don't know anything about me!" She lunged… fiercer than ever but also slightly off balance… Jing parried… her strokes lacked precision now but made up for that in greater number, higher speed and quantity… but he managed to find an opening to throw a warlock's palm out, knocking Chara away from him and Frisk again… "I know enough… to try to beg you to stop… because you were a kid once… troubled maybe, but you can't be all bad… especially since the darkness… or Oryx hasn't really touched you this time…" Chara snarled, "I am the thing that comes when it's name is called!" Jing continued matching pace with her, Frisk remaining behind the warlock, "Funny, I certainly didn't call for you… heck, am I fighting the real you… or something twisted our big Flower friend dreamed up… maybe this you isn't even real…" Chara's face contorted in rage, "Anything that has a soul is real!" She lunged again… Jing changed to his Tlaloc and started firing, letting Frisk get a hold around his shoulder and neck, he glided again as Chara replicated the solar forged guard the defend herself… She smiled unnervingly at him… as a trickle of blight spilled out from her eyes resembling tears… "I feel something else now… I win, you big mouthed man!" Chara teleported behind them and attempted to stab Frisk… but Jing spun around mid glide and took the blow himself… he coughed blood out of his Pariah hood, "…N-never!" he landed and fell down dead… leaving Chara alone with Frisk…

Frisk nervously brandished the toy knife and slowly backed away… evading 2 stabs from Chara… "Hm… you've not been the only one learning from these dumb adults… but… do you really think that stupid little plastic toy can stop me?" Chara lunged again but Frisk counter lunged and clinched her… making it impossible to use the sword… wheras Frisk was free to jab Chara repeatedly with the toy knife… Chara flinched form the repeated blows to her head, trying to swing the sword to get Frisk while trying to avoid Frisk scoring a hit in her eyes… Frisk suddenly released her… and she found herself impaled by the Arc edge… Jing glowed with fireborn solar radiance… "I won't need to worry about my powers being copied since you just have some rudimentary fragments of the sword logic now… but more importantly... like Harley and me said to you before… stealing our powers and knowing how to use them as well as us? You have nothing near the required experience for that, and as impatient you are now… you never will."

Chara started disappearing, glaring at them with spiteful rage… Frisk pulled the red ribbon out from the trench coat Jing had sewn… "Nice one kid… were you trying to go for the eyes?" Frisk didn't answer Jing as the ribbon and toy knife started glowing teal and light blue… so did their environment… Frisk handed Jing the items and clutched his hands nervously… "You feel it too right, Mr. Jing?" Jing felt the resonance, stronger than ever… "Yes, yes I do…" He held out Kabr's relic and drew power from the chalice of light… focusing on the resonance… he slowly conjured the form of a young girl in a light blue dress, her long strawberry blonde hair reaching past her shoulders and onto her back… the light blue soul flew into her form and began beating in her chest… "I call upon you now, you who are patient and know long suffering… you have been denied the long rest and now malicious forces seek to misuse you… these are yours, what will you do?" Jing handed the girl her ribbon and toy knife… there was a bright flash and before him stood a woman in a pink dress under a messy white coat… the toy knife had turned into a scalpel… her red ribbon was now tied around a sniper rifle… a longbow synthesis… the woman looked at her now adult body and hands… "So… this is what I would have been… become…" Frisk stepped forward with hands clasped… "Will you please help us?" The woman bent down a little and pet Frisk on the head… placing a green bandage which healed all the scratches, scuffs and bruises on Frisk's body… "Yes, yes I will… but you won't win with only me…" Jing nodded at her as he and Frisk were warped back to Karina, who had fired up the explosive punch effect in Maul'ual's maulers and decked Flowey's face hard…

She noticed their return, "Please tell me you found a way to do something, a tree would have been pulp now already… his durability level is absurd!" Flowey sprouted flamethrowers… Jing grabbed Frisk and glided away from the turrets… Karina unhesitantly channeled Valus Maul'ual and dove at the one nearer to her, by her estimates she should have blown the device up, but she only succeeded in bending it out of shape and harmlessly firing the blaze airborne… good enough for now though. "I might be onto something big girl, but it'll need time… they were back to back with Frisk in the middle again, shooting down the insect swarms… Karina grabbed Frisk this time as the vines shot out and lifted them both out of harm's way, Jing flung a Solar grenade at Flowey's right claw… "Yeah that's not normal, as a plant he'd have caught fire already at least…" suddenly for a moment he saw and felt a prickle from the Theosyian Vibrasse on his arms… and inexplicably he and Karina were both back to back with Frisk in the middle again… he sprinted and slid under the onslaught of vines while Karina grabbed Frisk and duck-jumped, using her twilight garrison to move out of the way… "Déjà vu?" she asked… her ghost replied… "Got to be our little buttercup here." Jing's ghost chimed in as well, "Indeed, he did claim to possess time altering abilities, who's to say that wasn't an example… or how 6 human souls might alter and augment them?" Jing didn't reply as he found himself evading an intense rain of little boy and fatman atomic bombs… well, at least that's what they were in appearance sans the Flowey metal stamp on them… if they really hit like real nukes there'd be serious trouble… he spotted finger guns forming along both of Flowey's arms… "Oh seriously?!" Karina activated Hammer of Sol and he grabbed Frisk off her back and ducked… she beat away all the flower tipped finger missiles with sun charge… these at least disintegrated… "Do you still think you are gonna beat me?!" Flowey yelled… Jing was teleported away with Frisk as his petal glowed orange this time before he could retort… Karina answered the way her long dead friend Wei Ning would have in his stead.

Jing landed holding Frisk protectively… he offered Frisk his sidearm… "Can you use it?" Frisk nodded and replied, "I've seen the first woman at it, a lot…" Jing looked around for the echo of Chara to appear anytime now… "Don't hate her ok? She's a little whacky in the head but despite everything she really, really didn't know how she did things would…" Frisk nodded… then pointed… Jing felt the child shiver… he set Frisk down and turned around as a muscular behemoth with glowing red eyes approached, Chara's head looking comically small on it if you could get past that face of hers… "Alright Frisk… listen up… to show bravery… isn't being afraid… it's… doing what you need to, or feel you have to despite your body being afraid…" Chara lumbered towards him, dwarfing him in size as he took off his left gloves… "Well, I'm not as good as Karina at this yet… but I have been training… though this is better off done by titans for obvious reasons…" Chara paused as he calmly strode forwards… surprised he would put himself in such a risky position so confidently… "Anyway… true story Frisk…" He punched the goliath Chara's form was squarely in the gut… Chara gasped and coughed… her glowing eyes turning back to normal red pupils… feeling pain spread throughout her whole body… she bled… "Hm… still needs work I guess…" Frisk ran up wearing the boxing glove, as Chara's form fell onto it's knees, Jing lifted Frisk who dealt an uppercut to Chara's face… the form began to dissolve and fade away again… an orange glow appeared on the boxing glove pair and Bandanna, which Jing pulled out from Frisk's trench coat on noticing… he began to channel the light of defeated guardians in the chalice of light through Kabr's aegis once more, using the bandanna and boxing gloves as a focus point… a young boy stood before them in a yellow shirt and pants with red gloves… they handed the manly bandanna and boxing gloves over… a dark skinned moustache marine wielding a sleeper simulant before them now... Frisk went up to him and the man knelt in response, "Mr soldier… please help us…" The fighter gave Frisk a thumbs up… "Of course… son… or if you're a girl.. kid, I'm… well, I would have been Avery Junior Johnson of the UNSC… So this is the life I might have lived…" the fighter turned professional soldier said as he stood up to talk to Jing, "This is a funny place isn't it… stopping you from moving… on… and now we got a case of like father like son abusing you…" The marine slapped Jing on the back loudly, Jing felt his super fully recharge… "Well, when we're done here… show me how you did that thing earlier…" Jing smirked and began to put his glove back on as he and Frisk were being teleported again, "Ask my girl yourself later if you see her…" he answered the sergeant who started chomping a cigar…

 ** _When the world is full of care_**

 ** _And every headline screams despair,_**

 ** _All is rape, starvation, war and life is vile_**

 ** _Then there's a certain thing I do_**

 ** _Which I shall pass along to you,_**

 ** _That's always guaranteed to make me smile:_**

 ** _I go loo-oo-oony as a light-bulb battered bug!_**

 ** _Simply loo-oo-oony, sometimes foam and chew the rug!_**

 ** _Mister, life is swell_**

 ** _In a padded cell,_**

 ** _It'll chase those blues away:_**

 ** _You can trade your gloom_**

 ** _For a rubber room_**

 ** _And injections twice a day!_**

 ** _Just go loo-oo-oony like an acid casualty,_**

 ** _Or a moo-oo-oonie, or a preacher on T.V._**

 ** _When the human race_**

 ** _Wears an anxious face,_**

 ** _When the bomb hangs overhead,_**

 ** _When your kid turns blue,_**

 ** _It won't worry you,_**

 ** _You can smile and nod instead._**

 ** _When you're loo-oo-oony, then you just don't give a fig,_**

 ** _Man's so pu-uu-uny, and the universe so big!_**

 ** _If you hurt inside,_**

 ** _Get certified,_**

 ** _And if life should treat you bad,_**

 ** _Don't get ee-ee-eeven, get mad!_**

"Why?! Why won't Chara bond with the souls? Why won't she take yours like she originally did?! I still have more to try… and why?! Are?! You?! Still fighting me?!" Karina replied by discharging a sleeper simulant blast at Flowey's face… he gave an "oh…" in response that one wouldn't use to indicate pain… Jing held onto Frisk and fired Tlaloc one handed, "Because she is somebody who won't stop until things are right… on the course for the best for everyone…" Flowey started up the rain of bombs again… Karina matched it with hammer of sol activating, this time with explosive pyre instead of fleetfire, throwing hammers upwards to detonate the fat men and little boys before they could do any harm. Flowey fired masses of chewing jaws that seemed to trail moss as they moved and bounced around… "Huh… ok…" Karina decked away the one going for her with a suncharge… Jing sprinted, wove and ducked then glided as two roared after him and Frisk… who shot at them over his shoulder with conviction II… Flowey's third metallic petal started glowing purple…

Jing looked at the ground… they were standing on what seemed to be a large sheet of binded foolscap paper with handwritten words all over it… Jing zoomed in using his visor on a purplish red light in the far distance… Chara was already trying to take the purple soul… he pulled out Tlaloc , letting Frisk ride him piggyback… he fired… Chara blocked the bullet with her knife-sword… smirking at them… he sprinted, intent on getting to them both… A pillar made of words blocked his way, peeling out of the page… he the ground beneath his feet tremble and jumped into a glide, going over 'despair' which blocked his way as 'death' erupted from where he was… the page opposite him was beginning to turn… 'ill will' thudded into where he would have been had he not sidestepped… Frisk started firing on the page coming down… Jing pulled Bolt Caster out and slashed through it, so that they would be on the other surface of the massive notebook… he was closing in on Chara… then the ground beneath began to tilt as did the opposite face of the book…. It was soon too steep to run as 'failure' attempted to smash him and Frisk… he had to wall kick and glide… before the book closed on them both… he realized he was close but would miss the jump… he grabbed Frisk and threw the child onto the ledge where Chara was… Frisk gasped as the one who had been guide and protector seemed to fall into the abyss…

"Just you now… are you going to give up? Sacrifice yourself for Asriel to become a god? For me to become you again?" Frisk turned… Chara walked away from the purple soul which twitched and writhed in a tortured, pained manner… Frisk raised conviction II… Chara sent 'failure'… Frisk shot that down… 'doom' spiraled at Frisk like a flying serpent and was shot down as well… "You actually have some spine…" Frisk leveled the gun at Chara and pulled the trigger three times… Chara cocked her head to evade the first round, slashed the second clean in 2 with her knife… and got barel scuffed in the leg by the third… "Huh, you actually have some spine… unlike that purple moron trying to outlast me… maybe your soul is the best of everything here after all… we are so alike…" Chara sprinted at Frisk who retorted as much as screamed, "We are nothing alike!" the first round was fired… she cleaved the bullet… "one…" Frisk fired again twice, she ducked under it… "two… three." She defelcted three more shots, "four, five… six…" She jumped… the bullet grazed her in the shoulder due to an imperfect deflection causing the knife to drop… "Ugh… whats happening… I should still remember more form that silly clown princess… but you need to reload that gun now… it's my chance…" Chara summoned a new knife from the ether… a Bolt Caster lightning storm struck her… "Ungh… why… won't you… just give it up you stupid man?!" A solar grenade followed up… Chara was no more once again… Frisk happily ran up to Jing, he pat the child in the back of the head, "Sorry if I scared you by leaving you alone for a bit… you did great by the way…" Frisk looked up and took a magazine to reload the sidearm from him, "Aren't we going to help the purple soul?" Jing prepared the relics that had been taken from raids… "Of course we are…" Jing struck the red and black writhing energy field surrounding the purple soul with a warlock melee… it palpitated in a less traumatized way… "You who persevere against all odds to know true triumph, I ask you to do so again, for one final effort is all that is needed and remains!" He fired light at the purple soul, which began to bond… a young studious boy stood before them… Frisk fished out the notebook and glasses, which were handed to the boy, who nervously took them, hands trembling… A scientist stood before them now… he spoke. "Wow… I know so much about… although it actually never did happen… but it would have… should have…" He cradled the Telesto in his hands and put the knucklehead radar his glasses turned into on his head. Frisk pleaded again, "Please help us…" The scientist smiled and fired a test blast from Telesto into the massive shut notebook Jing had been running on earlier, which began to crumble away… "I will, I'm helping myself too…" 'Victory', 'Triumph', 'Love', 'Forgiveness', spilled forth from the ether of Telesto's barrel… the words met Frisk and Jing… he recognized the sensation of a high quality overshield...

In one blink he was watching Karina deal with Flowey again, he picked Frisk up again. He drew his Tlaloc and aimed, picking the right most of Flowey's form's current 4 eyes and fired… the bullet struck… compressed a little due to momentum and then landed on the ground… he wondered if Flowey even noticed or felt it… then there was a swarm of X shaped bullets flying at him, he had to be evasive again… at least Flowey noticed… "Give up! You're not going to win!" shouted the plant-machine-boss-monster hybrid thing… "Arrrgh! My eye! Were you trying to blind me?!" Jing saw the smoking barrel of a sleeper simulant Karina was cradling… unfortunately one look at Flowey as he opened that eyelid clearly indicated he didn't get hurt as much as they would have liked from it… which was to say even a little more than seemingly not at all. Karina switched back to Dark Drinker and fired up the void forged against the wave of cross shaped shots flying at her… the vines struck and ricocheted off as well… Jing fired in defiance at Flowey as his next petal glowed green…

Jing looked around… he turned and caught Chara attempting an attack from behind with a frying pan… which was easily blocked… "Really now, how's this better?" Chara's eyes glowed and she smiled, "How isn't it?" and with that she was gone… the ground beneath them shook, he felt the vertigo of moving up too fast… and looked around… they were on a black floor which was ringed… Chara's brodingdanian face loomed in the horizon laughing… he felt Frisk shudder when they both saw the same thing… green fire suddenly lit all around the pan… he jumped and glided as Chara tilted them to try to make him fall onto the rapidly heating metal… "Jeanie!" His ghost heard and replied, "What you need boss?" He jumped again and glided after kicking off the pan which was brought up to meet them… "Change me back into this stupid Vex Theosiyan gloves later, I need sunbreakers… with radiant skin and will now." He felt relief as the metal plates vanished from his arm and shoulders, the familiar power extending ability felt wonderful compared to what put him on a very long term course of antienthogens… Chara laughed gloatingly… He activated Radiance immediately… "You think you're hot stuff because you're big? I've killed stuff like that before! You're just more surface area to hit!" Chara screamed as the first Solar grenade went right into the eye of her colossal form… but Jing didn't stop, Frisk turned away hands covering eyeees… as more and more solar grenades went out in Jing's fury, Chara's shirt was ablaze now, and so was the whole of her form… it soon shuddered and gave an impossibly loud shriek of pain from the solar assault which wasn't abating as Jing kept sending out Solar grenade after solar grenade… when he stopped, the gigantic Chara and the frying pan were no more… a green soul floated before them… Frisk pulled out the Apron and dropped the frying pan in slight shock when it was taken out given what had nearly just happened to them both.. Jing's radiance flames burned out… he saw the sunbreakers on his arms change back to Theosiyan Vibrissae and his skill set was set back to fireborn… he simply prepared the raid relics again, channeling light into the green soul, " I see all, a kind soul, loving and nourishing all… now trapped in this dark heart… life has been unfair to you, but at least I can send you on your way to rest… please… rise!" A young girl's silhouette formed before them… Frisk handed over the frying pan and apron…

Before them stood a woman wearing a work shirt which said everything, 'Macy's soup kitchen' the Sol edge extended out of what was a frying pan handle… before changing back to a normal frying pan… the Apron turned into a crest of the alpha lupi… Frisk went forwards, "Please help us…" The woman smiled warmly and offered them fried eggs on her frying pan, which they ate… Frisk's light burns healed and Jing felt his super recharge again… "My dear child… it seems in this life I never got to live… that's all I have ever dedicated myself to! Helping people!"

 _Take me on home to the asylum_ _  
Never alone in the asylum  
_ _Anarchy ruled, it was wild_ _  
_ _But through it all, you never smiled_ _  
Joke's on you, I'm in your head so  
Look who's laughing now!_

 _Remember in Arkham City  
I killed your girl, so pretty  
That was the night you let me die  
But when I looked you in the eye  
That's when I knew we'd be together  
Look who's laughing now!_

 _I'm stuck in your head and I'm laughing!_ _  
_ _I filled you with dread and I can't stop laughing!_ _  
_ _Your parents are dead and I can't stop laughing!_ _  
_ _What else can I do?_ _  
_ _Now I'm part of you_ __

 _I am the Clown Prince of Crime_ _  
_ _And we've had a hell of a time_ _  
_ _You're part of me, I'm part of you_ _  
_ _And now there's nothing left to do_ _  
_ _I just can't wait till I'm in control_ _  
_ _Who'll be laughing then?_ __

 _I drove you round the bend and I'm laughing_ _  
_ _I'm with you till the end and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _I killed all your friends and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _*crazed laughter*_ _  
_ _Oh yeah!_ __

 _Think I can taste your fear_ _  
_ _Now that my time is near_ _  
_ _I'm in your blood, I'm so alive_ _  
_ _I only wish you'd let me drive_ _  
_ _It won't be long till I make you kill_ _  
_ _Who'll be laughing then?_ __

 _Barbara's dead and I'm laughing_ _  
_ _Jason Todd's dead and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _I'm even dead and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _What else can I do?_ _  
_ _Now I'm part of you_ __

 _I drove you round the bend and I'm laughing_ _  
_ _I'm with you till the end and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _I killed all your friends and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _I'm cock-a-doodle-do_ _  
_ _All because of you_ __

 _I'm stuck in your head and I'm laughing_ _  
_ _I filled you with dread and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _Your parents are dead and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _*crazed laughter*_ __

 _I'm stuck in your head and I'm laughing_ _  
_ _I filled you with dread and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _Your parents are dead and I can't stop laughing_ _  
_ _What else can I do?_ _  
_ _Now I'm part of you_

Flowey surrounded them with larger bullets and sent them flying inwards, Jing, carrying Frisk and Karina easily evaded with lift and glide… Jing felt Theosiyan's tentacles twitch and heard a vex whine… suddenly they were back on their feet as if before jumping out of the bullet ring… he crouched, covering Frisk with Bolt Caster's guard as Karina leapt up… she fired up twilight garrison and went out of the way of the vines Flowey chosen to fire out… wheras they bounced off Jing's blade guard… Flowey's television screen showed a face frothing in the mouth with fury… "What is it with you two?! I can control time, reset your positions and… and… you just won't die! Don't you get it, this is a nightmare and you both are never waking up!" Karina nonchalantly snarked, "Really? Because it looks like you're barely fighting us to a standstill despite all that…" Jing shot down several of the insect swarms, prioritizing those that would hit Frisk over himself, the wounds on him would mend anyway. "Now really big girl you can give this kid's view of the world some reality check… he's losing to us and doesn't even know…" Flowey screamed in rage as more fat men and little boy bombs formed above them again… Jing grabbed Frisk and took off into a glide as Karina fired her Hammer of Sol up again to deflect the attacks… "Or maybe he knows he is losing, and is in denial or not happy… runs in the family from what I know…" "S… s..shut up you… you!" Flowey retorted as one of his petals started glowing yellow.

"Heh, didn't have time to finish the insult… whoa!" He bent down and covered Frisk as a sniper round whizzed through his arm… he winced… but the wound would slowly knit… he reached for his sniper rifle to counter attack but somehow the weapon was empty… same for his Saterienne Rapier when inspected… Bolt Caster still formed his blade… he wondered if whatever stripped their ammo couldn't do that to Bolt Caster due to sword logic or a poorly woven set of spell conditions by Flowey and this legacy of Chara he was trying to turn into the real thing… "Hey kid, you still got bullets?" Frisk looked at the ammo counter and nodded… He took back Conviction II and handed over a Gaheris-D… "Don't shoot that one as fast as the sidearm… this one hits harder but needs to be shot carefully, ok?" Frisk nodded, "ok…" It was funny how the weapon suddenly had rounds again in the kids hands… maybe he was the target of the no ammo condition? Like how Nightfall warped the rules of battle and reality? No matter, that was not important for now.

He drew out Boltcaster… Harley was the master of this art… but he had learned a good bit enough of it… "Stay close to me no matter what, Frisk." He emerged from cover… the sniper rifle fired… he blocked and deflected the shot… Harley probably could have cut the bullet into two, but what he had would have to be made to do… Chara fired at his head again. He blocked the round… and a quick successive shot caught him in the knee… he went down immediately… one more round was fired… he used the Arc forged guard to block it off… "Note to self, train this particular art more…" He saw Chara duck away into cover to reload and sprinted… rushing at her… Frisk managed to keep up… Chara got back up to snipe again… he got a good look at her current form… a near perfect imitation of Harley… except for the glowing eyes and bright red smile, not wearing a mask like Harley… the red glint flared at him with a loud bang… he turned… grabbing Frisk and tossing the child high into the air… and looked at Chara as the trigger was about to be pulled again, feeling the round that had thudded him in the chest… "Prepare yourself…" He lifted one food and glided along the ground's surface, through the cover Chara was behind and seized her, sword now sheathed on his back… "Die one thousand deaths." He whispered… Chara's world went black as she was savaged with blows that put her through pain and agony worse than Sans' karma attack from his gaster blaster opening barrage did… and Jing wasn't stopping…

"Death's too good for you…" Jing finished, '劲' flashed in bright blood red flames on his back as solar fire flared out of his eyes, blazing amidst the blackness of the Warlock's head casque… "Kkk…kkk hhh…." Jing was surprised and turned around at Chara's now strained breathing… "Well now, I had my suspicions at first when you tried to steal Frisk's soul, but now it's confirmed… you aren't really even human anymore are you… I was hitting to kill by not using the blade… only a soulless husk can survive that… and that's just what you are now it seems…" Frisk was caught by Jing before landing… and immediately fired on the now limbless imitation of Harley that was Chara with several hand cannon rounds… sending her dissolving into the ether once again… "Justice is done…" Jing checked his weapons, they had bullets again as if they were never gone in the first place… a yellow glow resonated as a soul emerged… sharing it's color with the light given off by the cowboy hat and antique revolver… Jing prepared the relics, "I sense the power of justice… you who have dreamed of righting wrongs and cleansing the world of evil… I bid you to help me with one before you depart for the next world… take what was meant to be yours, now!" He funneled light into the soul… which took the form of a boy dressed with a sheriff star… the boy took the cowboy hat and revolver from Frisk as Jing continued to pour light in… a man in a decorated police uniform stood before them, the rank of Commissioner was sewn onto it… under that were the letters 'J. Gordon.' His hair was a greying red with a moustache in similar colors… the revolver had turned into a copy of Hawkmoon… his hat was now a Knucklehead radar… Commissioner Gordon spoke, "It's funny… now that I know this life I never got to live… I wonder if it's better if I just…" He was cut off by Frisk tugging at his hand… and put the police hat on Frisk's head, then gave the child a friendly pat on the shoulder… "It's ok kid… it's ok…" He looked at Jing… "I got a sort of feeling about you… like, I know you because I… in these memories that never happened… met somebody like you, somehow… if that makes sense… well, I don't think I'm enough to finish this am I? Reckon you all still got one more person to get to, right? Plunge your hands into the filth… so that we can all wash ours… clean." He vanished… leaving a four leaf clover… Frisk touched it… Jing felt his cooldowns reset and his ammo fill back up to capacity… and they were facing Flowey's form again.

Karina blocked Flowey's mouth laser blast… Dark Drinker's blade failed after the attacked stopped, but she immediately put another Heavy Synthesis into it… evidenced by the blade re-extending again… "Ugh…. Stop it stop it stop it! Just let me take that red soul and become a god, let one of them bond with Chara to revive her! Why are you making this so hard for me?!" Jing threw a solar grenade at a flamethrower he was forming and slashed a finger missile projectile with Bolt Caster… "Because mucking with the dead is unnatural! Do you even remember what happened in the last timeline!" Flowey's petal started glowing blue as Karina punched one of his arms with Maul'ual's Maulers activated… "Yes… that stupid soul you are protecting and hiding from me… It, WAS… CHARA'S!"

Jing found himself teleported with Frisk again… but the environment was unstable this time… crackling with blue lightning and flashes of deep blue light… the blue soul appeared before him… he helped Frisk who was gingerly fishing out the ballet shoes and old dusty tutu… and then began to pour forth light into the soul… Jing was amazed there was no gauntlet this time… because from this soul he sensed the power of the strong… a tall form, taller than him in fact… but clearly still a child took shape before him as the soul drank in the light… it spoke, surprising him and Frisk, "Hurry up, just give me my stuff… I've been waiting her so long for something like this… somebody like you… you can skip the kind of speech I heard you give the rest" The soul in fact took the Tutu and ballet shoes from Frisk so hastily it almost seemed like snatching… Jing watched and spoke as the form grew even taller from resonating with her artifacts… "I think I knew your story the most… I'm sorry it went the way it did for you… you showed real integrity with your actions…" A tall lead ballerina stood before him with brown waist length hair… what remained of the tutu was a frilly lace tied around a Conspiracy Theory D… her ballet shoes turned into Peregrine greaves… which the ballerina began to put on as she answered… "I left Asgore's hospitality for a week, managed to go into hiding and tried to return to Toriel's side… I didn't succeed and became a refuge for over a year… I went down taking as many Royal Guards as I could with me before dying of exhaustion fighting… I wouldn't betray humanity… funny isn't it, coming from a ballerina…" Jing looked at the woman he was certain Karina's ghost would eventually resurrect in the far future… "Well… all I can say is…" She cut him off… "I'll help you… of course I will…" the three of them noticed Chara forming behind her Jing and Frisk prepared to attack, but she sprinted towards Chara… "Because… my soul is mine!" She kicked Chara, drawing blood as the peregrine greaves extended blades… Chara got up and she started pirouetting with those blades extended , "Because you and your idiot goat monster family will not get to use me for whatever the hell you all fucking want!" Chara went down on the floor, bleeding from practically every part of her body… the blue souled ballerina leapt on her pinning her with full body weight and kicked Chara's neck repeatedly … Jing shielded Frisk's eyes… "Because of you idiots, you stole this wonderful life that I should have gotten to live from me!" She went down on one knee atop Char's body and started beating on her face with her fists, "Now all I have is revenge against you! You and your stupid goat brother! That's it!" She struck the ground at least 3 times after the remnant of Chara faded away… Jing put a hand on her shoulder… he could tell she was sobbing… Frisk went up and wiped the tears from her eyes and gave the woman a hug… who slowly got back up, still carrying Frisk…

Jing heard several footsteps behind and spun with his scout rifle at the ready… but the barrel was pushed aside gently by Sgt Johnson… "Easy son, stand down… it's us… you reached us all." Said the marine… who walked at the head of the people the other souls would have been… the surgeon… or sculptor woman… he couldn't quite tell based on a scalpel or attire… Comissioner Gordon… the scientist… the soup kitchen volunteer… "Now, it's up to you… we'll do what we can from in here." said Commissioner Gordon, extending his hand… Jing took it… and he felt it… that familiar surge of power from the Vault of Glass… Time's Vengeance.

 _And so I'm home in the asylum  
Ever alone in the asylum_ _  
_ _"No! Don't leave me!" I cried  
Now I'm locked deep inside  
His subconscious, trapped forever_ _  
_ _Look who's laughing now  
*sobs*_ __

 _I was the Clown Prince of Crime  
He was the next in line_ _  
_ _I was him and he was me_ _  
_ _Oh, what a Joker he could be_ _  
_ _Now the darkness closes in  
No one's laughing now  
*sobs*_

 _I'm stuck in his head and not laughing  
I'd be better off dead and I'm not laughing_ _  
_ _I begged and I plead but he stopped me laughing_ _  
_ _If you only knew  
The things I'd do for you_ __

 _I was the Ace of Knaves *sobs*  
He was my King of Spades  
What a pair! Suits clashed in style  
It could've worked, this Joker's WILD!  
Oh, I felt so flushed together  
Look who's laughing now_ __

 _*sobs*_ __

 _I'm stuck in his head and not laughing  
I'd be better off dead and I'm not laughing  
Take Robin instead! Then I'd be laughing_ _  
_ _I'm finished, done, I'm through  
All because of you_ __

 _It was my final tour  
Always leave them wanting more_ _  
_ _But before the curtain call  
Make sure you try and slay 'em all!_ _  
_ _Nothing good can last forever  
No one's laughing now_ __

 _*sobs*_ __

 _I'm stuck in his head and not laughing  
I'd be better off dead and I'm not laughing  
I begged and I plead but he stopped me laughing  
Oh, what can I do?  
So near, yet far from you_ _  
_  
Jing was back beside Karina… Frisk on his back… "You can feel it right?" He asked Karina… "Yeah I can… does this mean we can actually hurt him now?" Jing shrugged and threw a solar grenade at Flowey's man-plant-machine form… he struggled to put out the fire it started on his right arm… "That's a yes… Hey Flowey! Guess what? We're gonna beat the evil out of you!" By the time he finished saying that Karina was already mid- suncharge and struck that limb which was on fire as well, causing it to break, having been weakned from being set ablaze… Flowey howled in pain… Jing took out his scout rifle and started plugging away while activating radiance and throwing more Solar grenades… even though flowey shut his eyes to prevent them being his, the eyelids were being cut and bruised… while Frisk fired more hand cannon rounds… as Karina lunged with a flaming suncharge airbourne kick… blowing through several fatmen and little boy bombs to connect with Flowey's jaw… teeth flying out of it… she dropped an incendiary grenade into the savaged maw… before aiming at the TV screen atop the massive face and smashing it into dissolving solar particle flakes with another sun charge… Flowey screamed as much as he roared from the pain of the fiery assaults which didn't cease… the place shook and rumbled as his form burned… "Noo! This is impossible! You… you… you…."

The TV reformed and flashed a trolling smile at Jing and Karina… who were stunned by him simply shrugging of their attacks and reverting to an undamaged state. Flowey fired his mouth laser, killing them and Frisk… then reverted time to a state where they were not damaged and impaled them with vines… he reverted time again… but this time they blocked his attacks with sword guards… he countered by surrounding them all with bullets… "You IDIOT. Hee hee hee. Did you REALLY think..." Jing calmly walked into the bullet ring and died, but Flowey brought him back immediately… Karina and Frisk watched in slight shock as he nonchalantly repeated the process again… Karina laughed under her helmet and caught on… she took his hand when he appeared next to her again and they both walked into it together… the next round Frisk climbed onto Karina's back and joined them… "You... uh... Would you all STOP that?!" Karina replied in a mockingly casual voice, "It's kinda fun compared to your boring predictable monologue actually…" Jing let go of Karina's hand for a moment and threw down a solar grenade, which showed Sans flashing a shit eating grin and shrugged, which he took his head casque off to mimic… "S-smiley t-trashbag…" Flowey gasped his face showing a little fear… Jing pulled down on his left lower eyelid, which Frisk followed suit, and they both stuck their tongues out simultaneously Karina giggled though she didn't join in, "Really, see? This is what I meant… you just want to feel powerful and gloat to us that you can do whatever you want with us, you're not as interested in this kill or be killed nonsense deep down are you? You need a professional shrink Asriel, not a soul… please… stop… let me… let someone, anyone… help you…" Flowey's face on the tv screen contorted with rage at Jing's words… Jing didn't notice… he saw something unusual beneath Frisk's fingernails at this moment that he felt compelled to investigate as soon as possible.

"Anyway, YOU! You're HOPELESS." Flowey regained a little composure by this point and vines seized Frisk with vines… Jing and Karina tried to intervene but were moved back into the ring of bullets… Flowey was gloating and enjoying it… "Thought you could defeat ME!? I am the GOD of this world. And YOU? You're all HOPELESS. Hopeless and alone..." Jing defiantly hurled a Solar grenade which exploded on the ring of bullets that surrounded them… "Golly, that's right! Your WORTHLESS friends... can't save you now. Call for help. I dare you." He couldn't tell if the taunt was for Karina, himself or Frisk anymore… but he realized he still had a card to play… , " Cry into the darkness! "Mommy! Daddy!" "Somebody help!" See what good it does you!" Frisk screamed tears of terror and helplessness now rolling down the young face, "HEEEEELP! PLEASE! MR! MA'M! TORIEL! SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! HELP ME!" Karina and Jing continued to try to find any means to get past the bullet wall between them and Flowey, but kept being moved back to its center… A twisted smile deriving pleasure from fear and agony crossed the four eyed abomination before them… , "But nobody came. Boy! What a shame! Nobody else... Is gonna get to see you DIE!" The bullets closed in on Jing and Karina as the vines began to strangle Frisk… Jing fired what he supposed would have been his final action… a blast from the aegis of Kabr which struck Flowey square between his four eyes… and then the large white barrage impacted him and Karina… but instead of dying, they felt boundless light and his ghost piped up, shocked… "Unlimited ammo!" Flowey's jaw hung open in shock, "What? How'd you...? Well, I'll just…" Jing felt Theosiyan's tendrils curl in a pleased manner instead of an irked twitch. Jing stepped up and triggered Radiance as Flowey began to panic… "Wh... Where are my powers!?" The woman in a messy coat appeared and trained her sniper rifle on him, Sgt Johnson calmly took one more puff of his cigar before stomping it out underfoot and vooping up the sleeper simulant he now wielded… The scientist pulled Telesto out of his labcoat and began spooling up the weapon, but not fully discharging a burst… The soup kitchen volunteer twirled her frying pan and it became Sol Edge… Each of Flowey's four human-esque eyes looked at one of them… "The souls...? What are they doing?" Commissioner Gordon stepped out from behind the tv screen and took a deep puff of his pipe before extinguishing it, "Teaching you some manners, son…" he drew Hawkmoon out from inside the brown detective coat he was now clad in… The Ballerina stepped from behind Jing and Karina, sprinting up and shoulder charging the vine tentacle that was holding Frisk… the blade on the Peregrine greaves cleaved through… Sgt Johnson caught Frisk and left the child beside Jing and Karina… "Alright marines! It's time for some pruning! Train your guns on him and let im' have it!" Jing looked at Karina and they nodded at each other, swapping out both their heavy weapons for the Sleeper Simulant…

"Goodnight, Flowey…" Flowey's eyes and the face on the screen darted around in fear… "NO! NO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO OBEY ME!" Jing unleashed his first Sleeper Simulant laser blast in synchronization with Karina… " STOP! STOP IT! STOOOOPPPP!" Jing yelled as the barrage of attacks from the orbiting souls continued… "What was that about kill or be killed Flowey? Oh right… this is YOUR NIGHTMARE… and you… are never gonna wake up from it… ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…!"

Floweys massive form burned away, crumbling in parts that weren't ablaze… the metal clattering to the floor… the plants wafting way as ashes in the wind… the flesh melting into aftermath… "C…Chara… h…help… please… take… what's left…" in the cloud of aftermath, they converged… a figure was found standing next to a large buttercup that drooped… another child that could have been Frisk… everybody recoiled in horror at the sight… Chara seemed quite normal… but ethereal… Jing and Karina recognized the substance flowing from her eyes, mouth, nose and ear holes as whatever was in the black garden itself… she breathed weakly, "please… help… I'm sorry… being brought back like this… hurts…" real tears flowed out alongside the black pulsing fluid… "end it… stop it…" Jing stepped forwards… "Close your eyes… I know when mercy can be the crueler option… this is one such…" Everyone held their breath… and with one swift move… it was over… Chara faded away the small heart of darkness in her began to float into the air turning into wispy vapor or smoke… or was it energy? Jing threw a bolt caster lightning storm after it… everyone recoiled and shielded their eyes from it's explosion… only Flowey's voice could be heard now… "Chara… no! Why… why… why why?!" Jing knelt beside the sapient plant. "She's… long dead Asriel… you have to let her go, just like these souls are overdue for rest…" behind him Karina restrained the ballerina who had been the blue soul from coming over. "Kill me." Flowey breathed weakly… the ballerina behind cheered the decision… Gordon went over to her, "No, these are kids deep inside… we do it by the book since they can't threaten us anymore… except that earlier one… she's supposed to be dead and admitted she had enough." Flowey overheard that and slowly managed to look at Jing, flashing a look of pure fury…

"You think I want your worthless pity?! That you have anything or a chance of helping me at all?!" Jing took a deep breath, he wasn't going to use losing his composure as an intimidation tool this time, "I don't care if you want my pity… but I know who you are… or who you think you were, Asriel… and as somebody who has plumbed the depths of death for research, I can tell you it's actually pretty swell, an easy exit… solves all your problems… yet here you are… and I heard everything you said to Harley and Chara… I believe you want to live… and I want to help you truly live again… I ask that you give my offer a try…" Flowey choked back tears and shrieked… "Get away from me! I don't care !I don't want your help! I only want Chara and you… you… you… I'lll kill you, you hear me, and… and everything and everyone you… you… you… waaaaaaah!" Flowey screamed and cried hysterically made all the worse by the fact that he had no limbs to flail and trash around with in his tantrum… Jing slowly backed away over to the towering ballerina and commissioner Gordon… "You sure you still want to spend the effort to stomp him? If you choose to see him as unfinished business it could make your hard fought freedom to the beyond… complicated…" The ballerina looked down at Flowey and scoffed, "Forget it, he's too pathetic to be worth that…" Karina who was the only one here taller than the ballerina finally released her on saying that… Gordon looked up through the tunnel… the sun shone and birdsong greeted his ears… he smiled… "We're on the other side of that barrier… we really… are free now… we can go… goodbye…" He shook Jing and Karina's hands… then tucked his hands in his coat and walked up the stairs into the sunlight… slowly vanishing from view… and then he was gone. Jing called his ghost, "Jeanie!" "Yeah boss?" his ever reliable robotic companion emerged… "Take a sample of the kid's fingernails, and put it in a containment field…"

Jeanie whizzed and buzzed about Frisk's hands as Frisk slowly crept over to Flowey… who was still sobbing… while the other souls hugged Jing and Karina before climbing the stairs leading out of the underground. "Wha… what do you want?" Flowey choked out… "I don't want anything… except to… help you be less sad…" Flowey, "What makes you think I am sad! I can't feel… a…anything…" Frisk squatted… in the backdrop all the souls had left… except for the Russian ballerina, who pulled off Karina's helmet and forcefully kissed her while caressing her short black hair…Jing's eyes bulged in surprise… though he didn't quite dislike what he was looking at and thus couldn't bring himself to intervene because he wasn't sure he wanted to… Frisk continued "You are sad… you cried because of… your friend… that you clearly… missed very much…" Flowey looked up… "Why… are you being… so nice to me… I don't understand…" Karina managed to force the kiss to break early and started wiping her mouth, paying at her tongue with her hand… she turned around once and saw the ballerina starting to force a similar long kiss on Jing… then continued wiping her mouth before double taking and using lift to skate over, she grabbed the ballerina by her leg in one arm and her hair in the other, prying her off Jing and skating over to the stairs that led back to the surface, heaved the ballerina out, where the slightly less tall woman vanished… Sergeant Johnson chuckled and offered them cigars… Jing hesitated but Karina took it immediately, and he followed suit… "I don't understand!" Shrieked Flowey as Jing's ghost went back to him with a containment field in tow… Jing coughed as he had never smoked before, "Easy son…" said the sergeant as he slowly began to make his way to the stairs… "Now you guys are probably some future tech marines or something, I can tell… take care of yourselves, and you, especially of this badass lady here, heh… she knows what she likes…"Sgt Johnson vanished into the sunlight…

Frisk pet Flowey on the head lightly… Jing and Karina began to make their way over… "You don't like yourself that much eh big girl?" Karina was a little flustered, which was something Jing cherished because this was rare, "She… she kissed me… then you!" Jing smirked, "Well you didn't bite her tongue off… I saw you tear open a cabal neck with your teeth before… so…" Karina grabbed his shoulder so hard that the pauldron of the Theosiyan Vibrissae seemed to give off the characteristic Vex whine of pain… "Listen up… granting this wild, far out theory of yours is correct… even if I am genetically her, I don't have any of her memories and I sure as heck… am not bisexual and since I like pinching your butt that much, I probably will never be… so…" She paused… her ghost popped out as she seemed a little lost in thought, "She's just realizing she just made out with her dead past life self or was forced to…" Jing chipped in, "Yeah, isn't it great? I'd think it'd be an interesting experience, after all, if it's me, it's ok…" Jeanie came out this time… "Not in front of the kid boys…"

Flowey calmed down a bit at this point, then opened one eye, "H… hey… stop touching me… m-my head feels funny where you did…" Frisk withdrew the hand… as Jing and Karina suddenly tensed and put their head gear back on immediately, recognizing the vision blurring static and fog that indicated Vex teleportation… they drew their guns… on his right the Theosiyan Vibrissae seemed to whine in joy and triumph… or was it fulfilment and satisfaction? "Frisk, get back here… now…" Jing called… several Vex confluxes began to form… incomplete devices that needed Vex sacrifices… "It's a pain to handle one by yourself… how're we gonna handle five?!" Jing knew he was whining, but it was really a seemingly unbeatable set of odds as he drew out Invective… Karina switched to Dark Drinker herself. "We handle it as best we can then…"

Not dying was probably considered a good outcome for this situation… not dying and protecting Frisk made it a taller order… they held their ground against hobgoblins, minotaurs, hydras… harpies… and more standard goblins outfitted with minotaur torch hammers… Jing and Karina did their best… but even as they put down enough Vex to make a pile of bronze robotic corpses… one conflux finally reached completion… Jing gasped and Karina paused as Flowey suddenly screamed, "H-hey! They're taking me away! H-hey, help! I-I'm sorry, I don't want to die! Please! And my body feels funny… they're showing needles full of this white stuff!" Jing threw a solar grenade as Karina threw an incendiary towards the minotaurs carrying the hunk of dirt they excavated out of the ground with Flowey in it… Karina's grenade took the minotaurs' shields off… and Jing's solar grenade finished the two closer to them off… but this caused a lack of support for the slab of dirt Flowey was being carte away on… so it crumbled… and Flowey fell along with it… into the solar grenade… "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Aaaaaahhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhh~" Jing froze in shock as he saw what transpired before him… he hadn't meant to… but he had just given Flowey a very terrible death by burning… Karina meanwhile noticed the Vex had stopped fighting… and Jing's shock was broken as Frisk huddled behind him… a familiar looking robotic foot came through the Vex gate… and followed by the form of Aetheon… "Aetheon? It can't be… your death sent us here… or… you need the vault… the vault needs you… this is…" He threw a Bolt Caster lightning storm at the colossal silver crystalline minotaur… while Karina opened up with a barrage of flaming solar hammers… but it was not enough damage in time to stop what came next… there was a loud whooshing noise as if heard through a pipe… and then Jing and Karina were gone when the flash of light ceased… Frisk trembled… along with all the robots… but they simply just teleported away or went back into the portal they had built… which then blew itself up… leaving a lonely child with the exit back to the surface world… Frisk hesitantly pulled the trench coat Jing had woven closer together and slowly, as a cold wind seemed to blow… it was the only good high quality article of clothing Frisk had owned in the course of life thus far… Frisk hesitantly ascended the steps back to the surface somewhat wishing for what happened to the escaped human souls to take place… the gun was gone… as was any other traces of the journey soon after, monster food was food after all, and served one purpose in the hands of an abandoned starving child…


	34. One Final Effort

**One Final Effort**

B312 Woke up as he had programmed his internal alarm subroutine to do… it was a nice perk of being Exo… Jing didn't finish his story before returning to the tower… but had told him return the next day or seek Karina herself the day after… He had a strange dream the last night… he was human and in black armor… but instead of a guardian he was a Spartan super soldier… well, that's what they were called there, but all things considered, not too different from a guardian ultimately… and was facing a battle he was doomed to lose even though his objective was to survive…

He was being shelled by tanks firing an energy mortar as his helmet's HUD slowly failed due to more and more cracks disabling the interface on it… until he was forced to take it off and fight with… well, it seemed to be an auto rifle and hand cannon combination he stood his ground with… until 7 aliens with energy swords charged him down and put him to an end… all things considered though… it was a worthy noble end in defense of humanity… not too different from what he currently was doing.

He got up and left the barracks, thinking about the mission he went on to kill Malok with Raynor and Kerrigan…

"Ready Sarah?"

"You know I am Jim… This has to be done…"

"How about you Noble?"

B-312 flashed a thumbs up… "Huh, I like him already… doesn't try to channel Shakespeare everytime he talks…"Sarah could practically be heard smiling through the sound of her voice "C'mon Sarah, Artanis wasn't that bad…"Raynor vouched for the verbose but still, rather competent titan. "Agreed, but he's off rebuilding sector 618… so since you found this guy, and he's also a Titan, we're clear…" Raynor banked his ship down, keeping in formation with the rest as they descended upon the moon, aiming for the hellmouth where Eris Morn met her tragedy… and they put Crota down… "Still couldn't we get Karina? The old familiarity and teamwork… no offense Noble…" He finally spoke for the first time since they formed up in orbit… "None taken, still I'd like to know more about what we're getting into." Kerrigan began to fill him in more, "Short version… Oryx has a nephew trying to be the new Taken king… Variks wanted to capture him to play with in the Prison of Elders… Eris Morn changed the mission to assassinating him…" Raynor joined in , "Well… the truth is nightfall effects are affecting the place… do you remember being in Varik's prison and the modifiers that changed the rules of combat?" B-312 thought for a moment… "Yeah, Trickle and Lightswitch are… the queen bitch of the universe." Raynor, Kerrigan and their ghosts chuckled as the hellmouth became visible to them… "Alright son, I knew you were a good choice, but this time it isn't Variks causing them for kicks, it's the effect of very strong darkness in the area causing lensing to the laws of reality… you should scan for what they are when we land… there'll be 5 of them." Kerrigan continued as their ships dove into the hellmouth, "One more thing, it might actually be Malok being a strong enough hub of darkness himself… he is after all… unusually suited to being the new Taken king…"

Raynor step backed as gasped as he warped in behind Kerrigan… B312 began to level his weapon as well… but Raynor pushed the gun down… "Mother of god… Sarah… is that really you?" Kerrigan was fully decked out in the reef's new Taken-styled Desolate armor sets… "I've been involved in… their experiments to make new weapons and armor from the taken… screams of these bastards can make your eardrums rupture and bleed…" Raynor thought about this for a moment, but Malok was visible in the depths of Phogoth's chamber and they started attacking as the oversized thrall called for reinforcements…

The room cleared and a tomb husk appeared… Kerrigan grabbed it and headed to unseal the door… "You ok?" Raynor looked at the titan for a moment and decided to use the lull in the fighting to voice his concerns, "Awoken… have a higher tendency to have unusual gifts compared to humans… the queen has her harbingers… and Sarah is… a telepath, she… when not in that warlock head piece, can read your mind… mine… sometime the enemies…" Kerrigan reached the door and began to deposit the tomb husk… "Is that bad?" B312 replied… Raynor pulled out his First Curse in preparation for more backup, "I know… she has been involved in something to do with the 'war trophies' a friend of ours procured when Oryx kicked the bucket at our hands… and…" Kerrigan's voice sounded to them, but they were heard in the head rather than spoken, "After all this time, you're still a pig…" Raynor shot a cursed thrall in the head, and chuckled, "Heh heh, well now… the new helmet let's you do this eh?" Kerrigan took advantage of void burn by hurling a Nova bomb which left a vortex at a door which just opened, "Jimmy drop the knight in shining armor routine… it suits you… sometimes… just, not now…"

The rest of their chatter in combat was practical, purposeful… directed at getting them to Malok and destroying him… calling out positions, tough mooks, especially those with void elemental weapons… and cursing the trickle modifier which they felt so heavily… Kerrigan was using a copy of Bad-juju to compensate while Raynor stuck to better gunwork… B312 set all his weapons up with the Grenadier perk to give his Armamentarium chest plate justification of use. The Taken were placed in annoying spots, and Malok seemed to have little trouble calling large numbers of them with blights to hamper movement and bar their way… Kerrigan pulled out some guardian archive data files…"Karina was here once… faced an ultra knight called the eye of oryx… but he wasn't anything special…" Raynor rolled his eyes underneath the mask of his Skyburner's Annex, "It's Karina, she makes any weapon she ever used look special and anybody who fights her… not so special." B312 opened the chest of heavy and special weapon ammo… Eris Morn's voice which sounded like a woman on the verge of a shrill breakdown came in over their comms, "Beware guardian, the blight will drain your stamina, your speed… do not let Malok dominate this shrine!" B312 hurled a suppressor which bounced off a pillar and blew up 2 acolytes… "I don't like the sound of that." Raynor started to reassure him, "Well, we've had plenty of experience with blights now, just take it from Cayde 6, more bullets can solve any problem these Taken guys throw at us…" The blights began to form and they felt the shadow touch pull on them and snuff their attempts to use light to maneuver… "Or… I hope that's enough because I really don't want to be like Kabr and discover we're dealing with something man enough to make us 3 guys short…" Kerrigan bombed out the rear room of the ring containing a huge blight with a nova bomb, buying their fireteam somewhere untainted by blight so their wounds could mend… B312 piped up, "well, we have comms, we can call more guys in, right?" Raynor rolled out in a shadestep and fired a shadowshot… the anchor caught a taken captain and several taken vandals with him… "Right you are… but… I think we don't have to…"

Malok swapped strategies in the fight, throwing a large library of taken powers at them after he bellowed and hurled aside his hive boomer in frustration, the fires of taken knights… the much hated blinding ball of taken captains… and as his pulsing head skin finally broke and exposed what was supposedly his brain… large numbers of Centurion orbs… Raynor kept his First Curse and utilized Suros Regime to shoot the deadly hissing, clicking void elemental projectiles down, "Aw hell, now I know how Jing and Karina felt back at Golgy!" He was caught reloading and one orb struck Kerrigan who died immeditaley despite putting up Dreadfang's sword guard… "Sarah!" Raynor cried out… B312 turned and noticed a Taken Phalanx level it's shield at the hunter… "Behind you!" Raynor turned just in time to take the shield blast which splattered him against a pillar and his vitals failed as well… B312 Fired his Choleric Dragon at the cluster of taken near the blight and sprinted over… he heard more of the orbs hissing as Malok discharged them… he put up the ward of dawn over Raynor and Kerrigan's ghosts… the orbs hissing but denied entry to actually strike him… though he stumbled for a moment as a taken captain hurled a blob of darkness at him, which surprised him to his horror by passing through the ward of dawn… but his armor of light held as he blindly punched out the taken phalanx which tried to waddle in. "That just wasn't fair!" He heard his ghost cry out… "Ugh… tell me about it… get Raynor back on his feet… I'm still seeing a lot of… black."

"Nice one kid." Raynor commented as he jumped out of the ward and fired a shadow shot which thudded into Malok's skull, B312 cringed internally… he still didn't know if that was a brain or bone… assuming hive biology had that similarity… somebody might have thrown up when the pulsating membrane on Malok's head popped earlier… Kerrigan leapt up and her hand glowed with purple void light… she hurled a Lance type Nova bomb straight into Malok who was still struggling under Raynor's void anchor… that did it… he began to tumble into melting blight and nothingness as he howled…

B312 listened to Eris Morn slowly speak to them… but the room was getting brighter… he began to shield his eyes as Raynor picked up the membrane… or skin that had fallen off Malok's head… the blighted chalice detonated in a flash that could have been an atomic bomb blast… though fortunately it was just only as powerful in how much spectacular light was given off… he heard his ghost sound off, "guardian down…" Raynor and him looked at each other for a moment and they both realized that must mean it was Kerrigan… they ran over to her body and slowly resuscitated her through her ghost… "Darlin'?" Raynor asked… Kerrigan took her helmet off… her red hair contrasting fiercely with her green skin and purple eyes… "I saw… the taken… the… strongest ones… they're… fighting to be new king… and she… she's winning… with greater powers… than them all and far stronger… I saw her for a moment… she… she could rip worlds apart…" B312 knelt down as Raynor asked the obvious, "Who… or… what?" Kerrigan looked at where the ball of blighted power had been for a moment, the image seared into her memories though she could no longer see it there anymore… but that instant was more than enough… "One of Oryx older conquests… and among the first of his strongest Taken… the Tai emperor Raven… and when she champions the sword logic, she would be the new Taken king… a queen… of blades…"

He went out and past one of the lounges where he saw Harley talking with 2 black glad guardians, their armor adorned with glowing green bits… she waved at him enthusiastically which he returned… but the… hunters? Warlocks? He had trouble telling through their choices of attire… shushed her down… and continued their conversation with her… he decided to leave.

B312 saw Kerrigan talking to Eris Morn in her little enclave near the Vanguard hall… there was a rifle present that he'd love to try out… but when he saw the women start to leave with the gun he decided he should return to business and find Karina to finish her story instead… sure, there were always more threats out there, but for the moment, things could never have been better for the solar system… even if the Tai emperor, who he eventually found out was a species of sentient avians… was to dominate the throne… wasn't a taken more likely to turn against their hive oppressors? He figured he'd get involved again if he had to… which… came to pass as Raynor materialized out of his ship right in front of him as he walked past Eververse. "Didja see her?" B312 jabbed his thumb at the vanguard hall as they were beginning to emerge… Raynor leapt over him and started sprinting towards them… B312 made for the tower elevator to head for the city, where Jing had told him he could find Karina…

He looked around as he followed the directions… but… this was a kindergarten… surely Jing had been mistaken? He began to enter the play yard of the school… a teacher noticed him at the entrance, "Oh, hello there… we weren't expecting another guardian… or Titan… for that matter…" B312 scratched his head out of reflex to his old personality though he had chosen not to feel itches at the moment… "Hmm… I'm here to meet Ms… Karina…" The teacher got up, "Oh, she's right through here… though I'm not sure how the kids would react to you being in full armor…"

He was brought into a dark room where a video was playing… filmed Karina roared in the video, "Can't anybody provide me with a decent challenge?!" showcasing Karina's battles the footage was a recent trials of Osiris game where Shaxx was berating the opposing team for fleeing from Karina in seeming terror despite her being out-numbered by them 3 to 1… although there were cuts and insertions that he felt to be in rather poor taste… she was dressed in a tank top and military slacks while standing barefooted like everybody else in this classroom… and she still towered over him. He approached her from behind, she turned her head a bit smiling, then whispered, "Hey, don't step on the mat in those boots… Nice to meet you, Jing said you'd be coming…" The video meanwhile continued to play… he recognized Jing on it… and it showed Karina taking her glove off to perform her infamous "Solution to all problems." As Valus Maul'ual, wearing Valus Tlu'run's added systems dove at Karina from her point of view with his shielded gauntlet blazing, firing missiles all the time… he saw Karina's fist lash out, and then it cut to a silly "Bonk!" with a caricature of her standing atop Valus Mau'ual, who laid on the ground face first with crosses for eyes and a tongue sticking out… The kids cheered… Karina giggled a little… B312 however… realized why the censorship was needed… Seeing the true outcome of that blow was about as horrible as receiving it… The video changed to her firing on Oryx… smaller sized than the colossal form he had adopted in the raid… and in thick red raiment made from some material he didn't understand… "At last! I will have vengeance!" Bellowed the king of the Hive and Taken… as the window behind him folded into wings… Karina called back , "You sent him to kill us, do you expect us to roll over and let him feast like we are cattle?!" she began to sprint as the taken king lifted his cleaver overhead for a charging strike… the video cut as they were about to trade a shoulder charge and sword strike… Karina was in a white washed dimension, Oryx's silhouette in the blinding mist that forced her, Jing and Raynor to be unable to reach him… "What you call darkness is the end of your evolution!" Karina said nothing and grabbed a cleaver nearby dropped by a smashed Hive knight… instead Jing spoke as they charged each other again… "And what you call the sky is the demise of yours!"… it cut to Crota falling to his knees as several Gjallahorn grounds blew up on him and broke his shielding… "I… I seem to know you… Would you defy Me? I am the eater of hope." Karina dropped the sword and threw up a ward of dawn granting blessings of light, "Do you now? Eat of me then… and when you find yourself too bloated to fight and that I am yet undiminished… You will truly know me." She grabbed the sword again and lunged into a 3 hit combo with a very vicious final swing twice… Crota got back up, glowing orange… Karina stood in her bubble as boomer fire and Crota struck… but it held… "I will not…" Crota called his oversoul again… Karina shouted, "Blast him!" Rockets from Truth and Gjallahorn exploded on Crota again, the deadliest show of fireworks ever… Gjallahorn's missiles were as beautiful as they were destructive… Crota kneeled again, "My… father… I… Gwwwwwaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!" Karina struck with another vicious set of swing combos that ended in an uppercut… sending Crota tumbling away into dust and ash… the video stopped before he fully turned into ash… an orchestra was playing some heroic theme in the background that got louder…

Karina had a strange ability to connect with the kids and in fact pretty much any citizen far better than he felt he could… this had to be why she was in the New Monarchy's "Know your protectors." Programme… he was somehow roped in to help by her for the remainder of the day despite being slightly awkward and uneasy… as his ghost showed some tactfully censored footage of his pursuit and battle against Malok… sparing how the unusually massive Taken thrall's head skin bloated and pulsed then burst... the tour ended at Karina's ship… a simple LRV-1 Javelin… practical and looking just as cool despite that.

Karina led them to the abode which he knew where Jing also lived… her ghost and his both popped up her ghost kept silence since his beat hers to the punch and they could both hear, "Just so you know… there's been a quarantine of guardians being allowed in or out of the city proper and the tower due to some tech mite infestation spreading around… so since we are down here already… if we get out of here now, we can't come back for a bit."

As he followed her through the house he heard Jing's voice and his ghost… "I can't believe you brought those things back here…" he walked past a quarantined section of the home that seemed to be the basement… a camera was taking footage of them… Jing was working on some very big spikey gauntlets… "Well, I had hoped to chat with Primus Ta'aun… but instead of a chance to negotiate an alliance I got to see him taken and had to kill him later… so… I'll just look into the reef's taken armor materials research and use this to handle Raynor worrying about what Kerrigan hears from that stupid gun Eris made with her… maybe I should have chucked the damn thing over the side of the ship…" There was no decorative flooring until the area from the living room which went to their quarters… or rooms rather, B312 corrected his thoughts, Karina gestured for him to have a seat…

"You know, you yourself probably have just as interesting story as you do your 3rd of all this…" B312 commented… Karina smiled back at him, "But it doesn't matter who you were, only what you become… the vanguard wouldn't like people learning about what I was like a long time ago…"


	35. 潇洒走一回

**潇洒走一** **回**

 ** _Sally Yeh_**

 _Karina: I was allowed to pick, beloved? Did I ever tell you that? Choose my face… to be whatever kind of guardian I wanted to be… I watched as those who chose to be tyrants, soldiers and protectors became what they wanted to be or what others needed to be… but all I knew when I was rose was that I wanted to be strong, swift and brave… but you had something every one of them I met didn't… Care to guess?_

 _Karina: You never died before the gift touched you._

Frisk's young mind pondered what it had experienced so much over the past few weeks… and different versions of those days across the timelines… sometimes not fully understanding… other times feeling sorry for those encountered… and shuddering a little at the cold and uncomfortably close sensations felt when slowly being taken over by Chara… and wondering if there was better in store… because that which was bad, and had somehow always been there at least… now had toppled right into worse in ways that had not been imagined… but were now, very very real…

The orphanage was understaffed and ultimately run by an insincere multinational conglomerate, headed by a selfish thatched haired real estate mogul in charge of many failed egotistical business ventures who used the place as an excuse to apply for tax returns and good publicity… the head of the orphanage tried to make due with barely enough to feed the children, making them cook and clean and feeding them enough through making them cook for themselves… it was enough to stave of malnourishment… until that crooked mogul decided to try to become president… and the money stopped… bad things began to snowball for the orphanage… the children did their best, begging for food, sometimes even resorting to stealing to feed each other… but Frisk's attempt to run away to seek any possible improvement was the nail in the orphanage's metaphorical coffin. The orphanage head fled to avoid the backlash that would come from the black stain this would put in the mogul's presidential campaign and the resultant entanglements with the law that came… and saw all the children here moved to more trustworthy facilities or in cases of better luck… loving families… not perfect ones… Frisk knew that didn't exist… but Frisk knew life could have been far better than what had been experienced by this orphanage….

So now here Frisk was in an abandoned shell of an orphanage… waiting and hoping for better… the monster food stash brought up from the underground was barely good for a week, Frisk stretched it's consumption over three… the only good thing was the furniture hadn't been touched, so at least there still was a mattress to sleep on, too dusty to fully clean, Frisk had laid a plastic tarp over it and the pillow… thoughts drifted in and out of the young mind of Toriel's house in the underground… watching her die the first time was awful… she didn't fault the first guardian angel… that one seemed just as scared and confused as Frisk had been… the second time, Toriel lived… Frisk wondered if she could be convinced to adopt the whole orphanage, somehow… despite how badly hurt she got… now, seeing that nobody cared about Frisk and thought business at the orphanage was settled… there weren't even missing posters of Frisk on the street, the selfish and slowly bankrupting Mogul was still attempting to save face and had hushed up the whole missing child incident and search. Frisk felt tempted to be a bit selfish and have Toriel all alone… and why not? She had love to give Frisk, a huge amount of it… even Asgore seemed to show that under the second guardian angel's protection through the underground… though in some ways that angel was scarier… sure… he didn't kill outright like the first… but the first one… her victims left no bodies or wounds… he took pains to keep them alive… but left them in great pain when he was done nontheless… Frisk laid back down on the plastic tarp and thought about food and water for the next day…. Maybe even considering finding a policeman to help… sleep slowly came, Frisk hoped to dream of a life with Toriel again… and maybe… just maybe… never wake from it… whether the other children in the orphanage came along or not… Frisk was certain it would be a much happier existence… maybe not perfect since it looked like Asgore was divorced… but he seemed to have love to give too…

Frisk awoke to the sound of a dog yipping away… it was still night… but the dog didn't sound distant… almost as if it was right here in the same room with…

The annoying dog had trotted into the orphanage, dropping the legendary artifact that small red orb from it's mouth… onto Frisk's lap… Frisk heard a voice… it was the second angel… "I feel it… the time distortion and sensory input is clearer than ever… I… I can manipulate this place with it… override what Aetheon did to this… hang on kid! We're gonna be there with you right…"

"…Now!" Jing finished… there was a wooshing rush sound almost as if it had been blasted through a metallic pipe… "You're here… will you help me?" Frisk asked… noting that Harley was still unconscious in Karina's arms… Jing and Karina took turns to hug Frisk, setting Harley down on an empty children's bed that was comically undersized for her. Karina smiled gently… "Of course we will… we're guardians, it's what we do." Jing looked around and grabbed a scrap of newspaper that had been caught on the window, he looked at the date… "Huh, this is when the first female president ever took office… heh…. Of course she did, how could anybody ever even think about voting for the other guy… I can't even imagine…" His thinking out loud was stopped by the annoying dog suddenly coughing and hacking loudly… it barfed out the phone Frisk had lost… Karina grimaced out an "eeeww…." Together with Frisk… Jing however used the newspaper scrap to clean it of dog residue and changed to a stormcaller to give the dead device enough charge to function… Sans's had left a voice message… "Heya, is anyone there? Guess I'll just leave a message then… it's been a while… the queen returned to resume ruling the underground and… well, things are different… she instated a policy that humans were to be treated as friends not enemies… and people, despite not liking it, accepted it… because… well, you didn't kill anyone, and papyrus' argument that only those who tried to hurt you got it helped… and hey… you may not have gained any EXP or LOVE but… I suppose this is one of those times idealism or… the way the world works took a run with reality… the way some of the monsters down here are, after you've been through and what you did with them… well… let's just say I think being dead might actually have been kinder on them? Maybe?" Papyrus's voice came into the message, "Sans! Who're you talking to?!" San's voiced softened a little as he turned his face away from the receiver, "Oh… it's… a special… friend, I think…" Jing could hear the mixed feelings clearly in San's voice and choice of words… "Oh! It's the human right! Can I talk to them?" San's began to hand the phone over, there was just a bit of uncertainty and hesitation to be heard, "uh yeah… sure…" Papyrus cheery voice came through the receiver almost as if he was shouting in joy again, " Greetings human! I, Papyrus am now captain of the Royal Guard! It's everything I ever dreamed of! Really! Well… only except… maybe I was wrong about getting this… it was what I wanted… but now that I have it I don't want it? The queen wanted to change what we did to watering flowers… but when I said that to some others… they went to talk to her angrily and she changed it back the next day! And she was sad that we still had to fight… because… well, the people didn't to see more of themselves get injured again… somebody has to protect them… they want that… Oh! And Undyne is now sharing the same hospital room as Alphys… they seem a little happier together… though Undyne can't see her or walk properly and Alphys can't talk or move much at all… Undyne… I'm sad now that I brought her up… I would have been happy just being in the royal guard and having her as the captain still… I realize now that's more what I wanted… well… good luck human! Hope you are doing well!" Toriel's voice suddenly sounded in… "Papyrus! You need to train the new recruits! People chose to keep the army… I don't like violence but it is what they want… who are you so long on the phone with, captain?" "It's… the human." Papyrus said… "Give it to me and go do your duty please." Jing immediately changed the phone to loudspeaker mode, "Hello my child… maybe I should have went after you and tried to stop you… but then, you showed me you were strong, and we didn't want to harm each other… it would have been difficult… and silly old me… I had to break one horn when we parted ways and to rest it off… If only I headed to Asgore's side earlier… but now I have seen what you did… but I do not hate you for it… because you were made to do it in many ways as well… I… I wish you were simply here with me back in the ruins, having pie… but who is to say that would have been better than this? Now I am queen again… and… I don't have long to speak to you… the power is nearly… wherever you are my child, know that I do not judge you… and that I hope you are well… I miss…" The message cut off…

Karina spoke up, Frisk seemed on the verge of crying and she cooed the child, "So… what now beloved? We're in the real world, but the past…" Jing looked at his Theosiyan Vibrissae again, Karina scowled at it immediately… this frightened Frisk a little and she softened her face immediately rocking Frisk gently who seemed baby sized in the female titan's arms… "That artifact let me beat the… time distortion placed on the dimension by Aetheon… I was getting sensory input 30 times faster than normal time… it overwhelmed my senses and I couldn't handle it even with different helmets overclocking my brain… I know what the Vex want now… Frisk's fingernails… there's a group of bacteria there just like the Vex… only they haven't developed a malicious hive mind just yet… if I replace the Vex milk still in this glove with that strain of vex bacteria, coupled with all our previous experiences… I will be able to manipulate the artifact's power… give us another chance in the underground… with more control than before… the Vex won't stop until they get what they want…" Karina stood up, looming over him , "Then neither will we." Frisk was eye level with Jing in her arms, and asked the warlock, "Will it hurt? Will the others get hurt?" Jing took off his helmet and looked Frisk squarely, "I… can't promise that…" Karina placed Frisk down and bent down to look at him eye to eye, "Don't worry beloved… if anything I'd say you have found the way and answer… and if nothing else, if you fail;, try and try again until you succeed… Jing stroked his lover's cheek down to her chin, brushing strands of blue dyed hair out of the way of her eyes, "You have that much faith in some experimental theory of mine?" Karina pulled 'the damned lute' off him and began to play it while singing ,"

一时失志不免怨叹

一时落魄不免胆寒

那通失去希望

每日醉茫茫

无魂有体亲像稻草人

人生可比是海上的波浪

有时起有时落

好运歹运 总嘛要照起工来行

三分天注定 七分靠打拼

爱拼才会赢

一时失志不免怨叹

一时落魄不免胆寒

那通失去希望

每日醉茫茫

无魂有体亲像稻草人

人生可比是海上的波浪

有时起有时落

好运歹运 总嘛要照起工来行

三分天注定 七分靠打拼

爱拼才会赢

人生可比是海上的波浪

有时起有时落

好运歹运 总嘛要照起工来行

三分天注定 七分靠打拼

爱拼才会赢"

"Heh, fight and endeavor till we win… amazing how much languages and dialects you picked up while doing stuff for Hideo… you've practically become another citizen guardian." Karina picked him up, almost about to kiss him, "You've had that effect on me…" Nobody noticed Harley had woken up and her high pitched voice got their attention, "Hi guys! What did I miss?" Karina put Jing down immediately, Frisk giggled and hugged Harley, who returned it immediately. "A lot, we'll fill you in as we…"Karina started as Jing had busied himself, having his ghost scan the newspaper with the dueling presidential candidates while heading over to what had been the orphanage head's office and forcing the laptop left behind there on with arc energy and plumbed the 21st century's internet… Karina, Frisk and Harley followed him. "What's the plan boss?" piped up Jing's ghost. "We're gonna break into president's bio labs to change the germs inside this damned thing and spare me the need to take these damn drugs… as well as gain more control over the restorative mind's powers still present…" he removed the remnants of the restorative mind on his arms and wore Sunbreakers again, taking an injection from his last dosage of antienthogens… "Then Harley, kid, Karina and Jeanie, we're going to the past, now we know the Vex either want the kid or that flower… the talking one… after the kid touches him or it… not before… then after we've done enough to set a stable time loop, we use that new timeline's version of this artifact… and maybe we can go home… or we hide and wait out the horrible things that will come and happen… until we reach the point in time where… we got started on that second attack on the Vault of Glass." Harley was still holding Frisk's hand and asked, "Oh by the way, what's your name kid?"

"Frisk? That's a nice name…"


End file.
